Re: chaos text

[Chuck Britton <britton@ACADEMIC.NCSSM.EDU>]

At 10:20 AM -0600 4/1/00, brian whatcott wrote:

> I came across an amusing if cynical proposition recently,
> to the effect that most natural phenomena are non-linear,
> but most physics & engineering are about linear models.
>
> A clear example of looking for the dropped coin under the
> street light, one could say.
>
>  Quite unfair, I'm sure. Arguably, transcendental functions
> are the glue of physics models, and integral equations
> are the stuff held together thereby: both quite non linear.
>
>    But then again....there are non-linearities of various
> kinds.   In fact, I regret letting go of a stray comment
> written recently to this list to that effect.


I have often enjoyed the quip that every mathematical function is
linear if you restrict it's range sufficiently but NO physical
relation is linear if you push it to its limits.


yeah, yeah I KNOW there are pathological math functions but do they
apply to any current physical phenomena?

 It's no accident that stressed                Chuck Britton
 spelled backwards is desserts.                britton@academic.ncssm.edu