Math 471 - Dynamical Systems and Chaos

Homework Assignments for Spring 2000

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Final Exam presentation:  Friday, May 5th from 8:00 - 10:00 in S 155.


Textbook: Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos with Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Engineering by  Steven H. Strogatz

Class 43 Mon May 1:    Properties of the Lorenz Equations; chaos.

Class 42 Fri April 28:    Read Sections 9.0, 9.1, & 9.2: Properties of the Lorenz Equations.

Class 42 Wed April 26:    Read Sec 7.3: Poincare-Bendixson Theorem.  Practice 7.1.5 on p.228; 7.3.8 on p.232.

Class 41 Mon April 24:    Read about limit cycles, the van der Pol oscillator, Liapunov functions: Section 7.0, 7.1, & 7.2.
Practice 7.2.10 on p. 230.

Class 40 Wed April 19:    Asmir Taletovic: Reversible Systems in  Section 6.6.
Today, turn in 6.3.2 on p. 182; the phase portrait may be done with Maple.


Class 39 Mon April 17:    Mark Wilkinson:  Conservative Systems in Section 6.5.


Class 38 Fri April 14  Brian Volante: "Love Affairs" (linear systems)
Katie Baxter:  "Rabbits versus Sheep" (Lotka-Volterra model of competition).

Class 37 Wed April 12:    Read 6.3:  Hyperbolic fixed points; Hartman-Grobman theorem.  On Monday, turn in 6.3.2 on p. 182; the phase portrait may be done with Maple.


Class 36 Mon April 10:    Read 6.3:  Fixed Points and Linearization.

Class 35 Fri April 7:    Phase Portraits of Nonlinear Systems: read Sections 6.0, 6.1, & 6.2.
Bonus: For Problem 6.1.6 on p.181, find the equation of the stable manifold of the saddle point.

Class 34 Wed April 5:   The "Determinant-Trace Test" for determining the phase portraits of linear homogeneous systems.
On p.143, turn in 5.2.6, 5.2.8, & the LRC circuit problem: 5.2.12  (in part (c) select values to illustrate the three cases and use Maple to draw the phase portraits.

Class 33 Mon April 3:   Turn in 5.2.2 p.142; also use Maple to draw the phase portrait.

Class 32 Fri March 31:   Turn in on Monday p.141 : 5.1.9; also prove the formulas relating det A & Tr(A) with the eigenvalues of A on the 3rd line of p.137.

Class 31 Wed March 29:   Turn in on Friday p.140 : 5.1.1 and 5.1.2.

Class 30 Mon March 27:   Experiment with the Maple worksheet "Phase Portraits of Planar Linear Systems."
Read Section 5.2.  Practice p.141 : 5.1.2.


Class 29 Fri March 24:   Experiment with the Maple worksheet "Simple Harmonic Motion."  Turn in p.140:  5.1.4, 5.1.5, 5.1.7.

Class 28 Wed March 22:   Read Sec 5.0 & 5.1.   Overdamped pendulum driven by a constant torque by Chris Vick.

Class 27 Mon March 20:   Synchrony of flashing of male fireflies by Lewis Pearson

Class 26 Fri March 17:  Ghosts and bottlenecks in nonuniform oscillators.  For Monday, read about the overdamped pendulum driven by a constant torque in Section 4.4.   Also, read about the synchrony of flashing of male fireflies in Sec 4.5 in preparation for the talk by Lewis Pearson.  Lewis's talk will be followed by one given by Chris Vick.

Class 25 Wed March 15:  Read Section 4.3.  TI  p.113: 4.2.3 (the clock problem).


Class 24 Mon March 13:  Turn in p. 85:  3.5.5 (not 3.5.6 unless you have already done it) and 3.5.7.
Read Sections 4.0, 4.1, 4.2.  PR p.113: 4.1.3, 4.2.1, and 4.2.3.


Class 23 Fri March 3:  Phase plane analysis of the overdamped bead on a rotating hoop / Maple demonstration.  On Wed March 15, turn in p. 85:  3.5.6 ( one physical analog is sufficient) and 3.5.7.


Class 22 Thurs March 2(Make-up class)  Special lecture by Bill Mason.  Subcritical Pitchfork Bifurcation / Stabilizing influence of higher-order terms / hysteresis.

Class 21 Wed March 1:  Dimensional analysis and scaling. ( Remember make-up class tomorrow at 1:00.)

Class 20 Mon Feb 28:  Analysis of the first-order system modeling the angular displacement of the overdamped bead on a rotating hoop.  Turn in p. 84: 3.5.2. 

Class 19 Fri Feb 25:  Read Sec 3.5:  Overdamped bead on a rotating hoop.  Turn in p.82: 3.4.2 (analyze graphically breaking up into two parts: x' = rx  & x' = sinh x.  (References:  the way I worked Example 3.4.1 & the solution of Problem 3.2.4).  Also, p.84: 3.4.16 part (a).

Class 18 Wed Feb 23:   Example 3.4.1 - analysis of a differential equation that arises in models of magnets & neural networks.

Class 17 Mon Feb 21:  Read Sec 3.4.  PR p. 82:  3.4.2

Class 16 Fri Feb 18:   Special lecture by Roberto Martinez on how lasers operate and an improved model of the laser threshold.
Turn in 3.3.1 (a), (b), (c) about an improved model of the laser.  Read Sec 3.4.

Class 15 Wed Feb 16:   Practice p.80:  3.2.2.   Turn in p.80:  3.2.4.  Read Sec 3.3.

Class 14 Mon Feb 14:   Turn in  p.79:  3.1.2.   Read Sec 3.2.

Class 13 Fri Feb 11:     Practice p.79:  3.1.1 & 3.1.2.  Read Sec 3.2 about transcritical bifurcations.

Class 12 Wed Feb 9:    No class.  On Friday, turn in p.41:  2.5.6.   PR p.42: 2.7.1 & 2.7.5.  Read Sec 3.0 & 3.1.

Class 11 Mon Feb 7:    No class.

Class 10 Fri Feb 4:     Turn in p.41:  2.5.6.   PR p.42: 2.7.1 & 2.7.5.  Read Sec 3.0 & 3.1.

Class 9 Wed Feb 2:     Read Sec 2.6 & 2.7.  Turn in p.41:  2.5.6 on Monday.

Class 8 Mon Jan 31:     Turn in on Friday: p.39: 2 .3.2, 2.4.4, 2.4.9.   Practice p. 40:  2.5.1 & 2.5.4.

Class 7 Fri Jan 28:   All CBU classes cancelled due to snow.

Class 6 Wed Jan 26:     Read pp. 24-28.   Practice p. 38:  2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.4.5, 2.4.6 .

Class 5 Mon Jan 24:    Turn in p. 36:  2.2.3 & 2.2.11.   Practice p. 37: 2.2.7. 

Class 4 Fri Jan 21:    Turn in p. 36:  2.1.2, 2.1.4.    Practice p. 36: 2.1.1,  2.1.3, 2.2.1. 

Class 3 Wed Jan 19:    Read pp. 15 - 24. 

Class 2 Fri Jan 14:  TI Problems 1 & 2 on  Homework Sheet.

Class 1 Wed Jan 12:  Read Chapter 1 Overview pp. 1-11.  Experiment with the Maple worksheet "Butterfly".