Chaos Theory, Chaos Practice

Anthony • Dec 21, 2021

I will be teaching a seminar called Chaos Theory, Chaos Practice as part of the Tufts Summer Accelerator program for high school students from July 10, 2022 to July 22, 2022. Here's the blurb I wrote for it:

"Chaos", as a mathematical term, refers to a phenomenon in highly-interconnected systems whereby they become sensitive to small perturbations in their conditions. Sometimes called "the butterfly effect", this sensitivity can make such systems difficult to understand and predict; even the act of observing them can change their future course significantly. We live our lives literally surrounded by chaotic systems, most notably the weather and climate systems. We are also increasingly turning our human-made systems, like the internet, the electric grid, and the financial system, into complex and potentially chaotic systems. In this seminar, we will explore chaos theory as a field of study, and we will explore chaotic systems in practice using a variety of computational tools, with a view towards developing a deeper appreciation of our complex world.

Before I started college ??? years ago I attended a similar type of seminar and found it so engaging that I still think about it. I'm going to try to pay that forward a little.