Physics 505 Lecture Demonstrations

Tuesday, September 5 (Introduction and Overview)

• Handouts
• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Metronome
• Magnetic pendulum (tennis ball)
• Driven pendulum demo (oscillating cart)
• Balls in troughs
• Aquarium with water and dye
• Chaotic double pendulum
• Oscillating ball
• Firehose instability
• Chaotic water bucket
• Dripping faucet
• Rubber ball and 5 x 8" index card
• Balloon
• Chaotic circuits

Tuesday, September 12 (One-Dimensional Maps)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Silly putty
• Large rubber band
• Sharply pointed pencil
• Chaotic water bucket (again)
• Chaotic circuits (again)

Tuesday, September 19 (Nonchaotic Multidimensional Flows)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Sharply pointed pencil (again)
• Ball on a string
• Mass on a spring
• Driven mass on a spring
• Inner tube
• Fractal music (Gary Nelson)

Tuesday, September 26 (Dynamical Systems Theory)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Balls in troughs of various shapes
• Inner tube (again)
• Mass on a spring (again)
• Coffee mug
• Pringles potato chips

Tuesday, October 3 (Lyapunov Exponents)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Inner tube (again)
• Coffee mug (again)

Tuesday, October 10 (Strange Attractors)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• 3-D glasses
• Strange Attractor book
• Sample attractor prints

Tuesday, October 17 (Stability and Bifurcations)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Silly putty

Tuesday, October 24 (Hamiltonian Chaos)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Inner tube
• Chaotic double pendulum
• Mass on a spring
• Physical pendulum (one that can go "over the top")
• Chaotic toy
• Small driven pendulum
• Wilberforce pendulum

Tuesday, October 31 (Time-Series Properties)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Metronome
• Geiger counter with sources

Tuesday, November 7 (Nonlinear Prediction and Noise Reduction)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Noise generator (white and pink) connected to speaker

Tuesday, November 14 (Fractals)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Ball of string
• Leaf
• Stick
• Rubber ball
• Sheet of paper
• String

Tuesday, November 21 (Calculation of Fractal Dimension)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Rubber ball
• Sheet of paper
• String

Tuesday, November 28 (Multifractals)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer

Tuesday, December 5 (Other Chaotic Sets)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• VHS player and large monitor (or room monitors)
• Fractal Fantasy (QA614.86 F7y 1987) - see instructions at beginning of tape

Tuesday, December 12 (Spatiotemporal Chaos and Complexity)

• LCD projector with my laptop and Internet connection
• Stapler
• Laser pointer
• Teaching evaluations