This program is a run-time book intended to introduce the mathematics of chaos to non-mathematicians, in plain language, assuming only a solid high school math background. We will begin with a review of concepts from algebra and develop the topic in such a way that we maintain its connection to "ordinary" mathematics. Chaos theory is finding its way into many professions, among them market analysis, medicine, manufacturing and ecology, as well as science and engineering. A person completing this tutorial will be able to understand the references to chaos appearing in their own field and apply the principles in their work. Click on the Course Outline to see the topics covered.

I referred to this program as a run-time book and so it is. But it is a textbook with a difference. Embedded in the text are displays which illustrate mathematical principles or mathematical models of real physical systems. In a sense the laboratory has been incorporated in the book. With a click of the mouse you are presented with virtual laboratory apparatus over which you have complete control. This is a step beyond even the most sophisticated interactive multi-media presentation because you can actually change the models, not just select from canned examples installed by someone else. The model output is in the form of graphs, tables, phase space orbits or maps. The screen shots below are examples of maps. The first plots the basins of attraction for a mechanical oscillator. The second plots the first 500 iterations of a bell curve over a range of amplitudes.

Not only does the user have complete control of the virtual laboratory, we also provide you with control over the text. The written material is presented in a full featured text editor so you may add your own notes, or you may design a course of instruction that is uniquely your own, using the installed virtual laboratory to create illustrations of the principles you want to explain.

Order requires one of the 32 bit Windows operating systems, Win95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP, and 32 megabytes of RAM. The installed size of the program on the hard drive is about 3 megabytes. Click on the OSetup link to download the installation program. Save it to a convenient location on your computer and run it to install Order.