CDS 104 -- Spring 2009
Third Term
Introductory Concepts for Dynamical Systems
Tuesdays and Thursdays
2:30-3:25pm
Steele 214
| Instructor: Melvin Leok Steele 128 Office hours: Tuesdays, 3:30-4:30pm, and by appointment | Teaching Assistant: Luis Soto-Ortiz Steele 15 Office hours: Wednesdays, 1-2pm, and by appointment |
Course Description
CDS 104 is aimed at students who are new to nonlinear dynamics, especially those in chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering. Our goal is to explain this subject in a direct and simple way, and to show how it can be used to understand the wonders of the nonlinear world. We will use the textbook written by Strogatz whose mathematical treatment is friendly and informal, yet still careful. Computation, concrete examples, and geometric intuition will be stressed. We will cover chapters on phase plane analysis, limit cycles, bifurcation as well as chaos, with applications to physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering. These materials should provide students with a good grounding on nonlinear methods.
Course Text
The Primary Course Text is:
- Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, with Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering
by Steven Strogatz.
The following additional reference may also be useful but is by no means necessary (i.e. you do not need to buy it).
- Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems, Third Edition 2001
by Lawrence Perko.