ENGR 091 Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos

Official course website

Spring 2025 • E91 • Swarthmore College • MW 11:45 to 1:00 Singer 221

Welcome to the website for E91: Nonlinear Dynamics & Chaos!

General Information

Schedule

Hyperlinks to lectures and homework assignments will be posted here. The schedule after spring break is tentative.

Class Date Topic Readings Due
1.1 Wed, Jan 22 Introduction & Review    
2.1 Mon, Jan 27 Three approaches to dynamics 2.0, 2.1, 4.0, 4.1  
2.2 Wed, Jan 29 Potentials & Linear Stability 2.4, 2.7 HW 1 [solutions]
3.1 Mon, Feb 3 Bifurcations 3.1 to 3.4  
3.2 [In-class exercise] Wed, Feb 5 Bifurcations 3.4, 3.5 (dimensional analysis and scaling), 3.7 HW 2 [solutions]
4.1 [In-class exercise] Mon, Feb 10 Linear systems Ch. 5  
4.2 Wed, Feb 12 Linear systems Ch. 5.0, 5.1, 5.2 HW 3 [solutions]
5.1 Mon, Feb 17 Nonlinear phase plane Ch. 5.3  
5.2 Wed, Feb 19 Linearization about fixed pts Ch. 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 HW 4 [solutions]
6.1 Mon, Feb 24 Hyperbolic fixed pts; popln. dyn. Ch. 6.3, 6.4  
6.2 Wed, Feb 26 Nonlinear phase plane; conservative systems Ch. 6.4-6.8 HW 5
7.1 Mon, Mar 3 Conservative systems; index Ch. 8  
7.2 [In-class exercise] Wed, Mar 5 Limit Cycles Ch. 8 HW 5 due F
8.1 [Video recording] Mon, Mar 17 Limit Cycles; Poincare-Bendixson Thm.    
8.2 Wed, Mar 19 Midterm    
9.1 [In-class exercise] Mon, Mar 24 Bifurcations    
9.2 [In-class exercise] Wed, Mar 26      
10.1 Mon, Mar 31      
10.2 Wed, Apr 2     HW 6
11.1 Mon, Apr 7      
11.2 Wed, Apr 9     HW 7 due F
12.1 Mon, Apr 14      
12.2 Wed, Apr 16     HW 8
13.1 Mon, Apr 21      
13.2 Wed, Apr 23     HW 9
14.1 Mon, Apr 28      
14.2 Wed, Apr 30     HW 10
13.2 Wed, Apr 23      
14.1 Mon, Apr 28      
14.2 Wed, Apr 30      

Syllabus

Syllabus

Labs

Lab Topic Open Report Due Location
Lab 1 Linear vs Nonlinear Dynamics Feb 10 Feb 24 Singer 120
Lab 2 The Nonlinear Phase Plane Mar 02 Mar TBD Singer 246

Resources

Resources