Chaos exists in systems all around us. Even the simplest system of cause & effect can be subject to chaos denying us accurate predictions of its behaviour & sometimes giving rise to astonishing structures of large-scale order. Our growing understanding of Chaos Theory is having fascinating applications in the real world
- from technology to global warming politics human behaviour & even gambling on the stock market. Leonard Smith shows that we all have an intuitive understanding of chaotic systems. He uses accessible maths & physics (replacing complex equations with simple examples like pendulums railway lines & tossing coins) to explain the theory & points to numerous examples in philosophy & literature (Edgar Allen Poe Chang-Tzu Arthur Conan Doyle) that illuminate the problems. The beauty of fractal patterns & their relation to chaos as well as the history of chaos & its uses in the real world & implications for the philosophy of science are all discussed in this Very Short Introduction.