Chance and Chaos ISBN: 9780691213958 Platform/Publisher: De Gruyter / Princeton University Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited Subjects: Mathematics; History and Philosophy;
Ruelle, French professor of theoretical physics and author of several graduate-level mathematics and physics texts, here demonstrates the advanced ability to teach the general reader with conversational grace. The pace of his ``walk among the scientific results of the twentieth century'' does not rely on ``great men'' nor yet on historicity but on good structure. Ruelle guides the reader through Godel's theorem, quantum mechanics, strange attractors and a half-dozen of the most exotic modern theories. All the while his twin themes, mathematical chance and chaos theory, bound alongside like two dachshunds on a leash. If these themes wander into less fruitful speculations about the mathematical function of sex, for example, nonetheless Ruelle's ``walk'' has clarity and delight. To his credit, he does not spare the reader all of the number theory and notation. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
David Ruelle, a French physicist, is one of the founders of Chaos Theory. In his book, Chance and Chaos, Ruelle explains this theory and how randomness, chance, and chaos play a role in physical systems. This work, one of his better known, is accessible for the common reader, not just the scientist.
Other works by Reulle are Chaotic Evolution and Strange Attractors: The Statistical Analysis of Time Series for Deterministic Nonlinear Systems; Meteorological Fluid Dynamics: Asymptotic Modelling, Stability and Chaotic Atmospheric Motion; (for which Reulle was one of the editors); and Dynamical Zeta Functions for Piecewise Monotone Maps of the Interval. The latter is a more technical work of a mathematical nature.
