Chaotic Dynamics: Using College Students as Entities for Chaos Experiments

[butoyzki]

i'm an undergraduate student decided to pursue a thesis on chaotic dynamics. would it be feasible to use the student population of my college department as an entity which will exhibit chaos? i need help, feel free to PM me or mail me: reysagana@gmail.com

thanks.

 

[J77]

You can't just use "a population" -- they have to be doing something!

Hence the field of population dynamics which generally uses toy-models which include changeable breeding and death rates to show the development of chaotic dynamics.

 

[butoyzki]

You can't just use "a population" -- they have to be doing something!

Hence the field of population dynamics which generally uses toy-models which include changeable breeding and death rates to show the development of chaotic dynamics.

how about the change in population of the students (e.g. the enrolment rate or the decrease/increase in enrolment)

would you suggest alternative subjects beside from the student population?

 

[J77]

As it's an undergrad thesis, I'd advise you to take a well know model -- eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rössler_attractor -- and perform a bifurcation study; ie. with respect to showing you can do an analytical analysis, and write code to produce numerical bifurcation diagrams.

 

[butoyzki]

i have sent u a PM regarding my work.

p.s.

would i have to use mathematica or any other software for the conduct of research on population dynamics/dynamical models? i don't have one eh.

 

[butoyzki]

just PM me whenever you're online, ayt? thanks!

attached is a copy of my thesis proposal

 

[butoyzki]

As it's an undergrad thesis, I'd advise you to take a well know model -- eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rössler_attractor -- and perform a bifurcation study; ie. with respect to showing you can do an analytical analysis, and write code to produce numerical bifurcation diagrams.

how do i do this?

 

[J77]

how do i do this?

Well, the wiki link pretty much shows you how to linearize the equations and compute the eigenvalues which determine the stability of a steady state equilibrium.

For the numerics, look up some numerical integration schemes; such as, Euler or Runge-Kutta.

You could even do a survey of a number of nonlinear equations -- maps and flows -- and then use your code to compute numerical bifurcation diagrams.