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!
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 | |
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 | ||
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 |
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 |
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