A Dazzling Display of Chaotic Dynamics

[BaalChatzaf]

Have a look at this. A flock of 300,000 Denmark Starlings wheeling about.

http://www.buzzfeed....ove-at-once-e5y

Amazing! Schools of fish display the same sort of behavior as do the lighting patterns of fireflies in the dark.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited December 11, 2009 by BaalChatzaf

[Dragonfly]

Such swirling starling clouds are quite common here. I've always wanted to try to emulate that kind of behavior with a computer, to see if I can find a relatively simple model for it, but at the moment I have no working programming software on my (new) computer.

[BaalChatzaf]

Such swirling starling clouds are quite common here. I've always wanted to try to emulate that kind of behavior with a computer, to see if I can find a relatively simple model for it, but at the moment I have no working programming software on my (new) computer.

My guess is the the birds react to those birds closest to them and in view. I suspect the "rules" of interaction are close to determinstic, but in the aggregate yield chaotic behavior. About 45 years ago, a meteorologist, Ed Lorenz developed a set of deterministic non-linear differential equations to describe convection and air flow. He (re)discovered that the result was very non-linearly dependent on the initial conditions for the equations. He (re)discovered the theory of chaotic dynamics which was previously pursued by Henri Poincare about 1905. The main difference is the Lorenz had a computer and Poincare did not. Thus was reborn the science of chaos.

Since then many people have discovered that systems with very simple rules both deterministic and non-deterministic produce highly non-linear and non-predictable behavior. See the relationship betwee the Sierpinsky Sponge and the Conroy Chaos Game on a triangle. The rules are so simple that a five year old could comprehend them, but the results are dazzling.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Max Eichelberger]

Such swirling starling clouds are quite common here. I've always wanted to try to emulate that kind of behavior with a computer, to see if I can find a relatively simple model for it, but at the moment I have no working programming software on my (new) computer.

My guess is the the birds react to those birds closest to them and in view. I suspect the "rules" of interaction are close to determinstic, but in the aggregate yield chaotic behavior. About 45 years ago, a meteorologist, Ed Lorenz developed a set of deterministic non-linear differential equations to describe convection and air flow. He (re)discovered that the result was very non-linearly dependent on the initial conditions for the equations. He (re)discovered the theory of chaotic dynamics which was previously pursued by Henri Poincare about 1905. The main difference is the Lorenz had a computer and Poincare did not. Thus was reborn the science of chaos.

Since then many people have discovered that systems with very simple rules both deterministic and non-deterministic produce highly non-linear and non-predictable behavior. See the relationship betwee the Sierpinsky Sponge and the Conroy Chaos Game on a triangle. The rules are so simple that a five year old could comprehend them, but the results are dazzling.

Ba'al Chatzaf

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."