Chapters 5-6 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 5: Strange Attractors: A problem for God; Transitions in the laboratory; Rotating cylinders and a turning point; David Ruelle's idea for turbulence; Loops in phase space; Mille-feuilles and sausage; An astronomer's mapping; "Fireworks or galaxies."

"Big whorls have little whorls which feed on their velocity, and little whorls have lesser whorls and so on to viscosity." (Lewis F. Richardson, Chap. 5, p. 119).

Turbulence caused a problem with pedigree. The great physicists had to consider the issue whether formally or informally. Wild patterns disrupt the boundary between solid and fluid. Energy will drain rapidly from large-scale motions to small-scale motions. The scientists had to ask themselves why.

Theoretical physics had come to a standoff with the phenomenon of turbulence. By modern times, this issue was no longer on the front lines.

How is turbulence defined? Turbulence is defined as a mess...