Chaos for Java

This software is designed to accompany the author's book "Exploring Chaos: Theory and Experiment", published by Perseus Books. Documentation on the software, as well as more than 100 student exercises which employ it, may be found in the book.

The software is free for non commercial use; before using it you must read and agree to the licence agreement. All other rights reserved. Copyright ©1999-2002 by Brian Davies.



Simply press one of the buttons in the Applet, after it has loaded (as indicated by the progress bar) and a window will pop up after a short delay. Note that, to provide visual feedback that something is happening, the button will stay down until after the window is constructed; further clicks during this time will be ignored.

You must enable Java in your browser to run ANUChaos

Bug reports may be sent to Brian.Davies@anu.edu.au but it is essential to quote all the information in the panel above, ie

  1. the platform and operating system - displayed top left,
  2. the virtual machine information - displayed top right,
  3. the Chaos for Java version - displayed bottom.
  4. the Browser (including version) or other method of deployment.


Version History

  1. Version 1.0 - June 30, 1999. Original Applet version released for use with book.
  2. Version 1.0.1 - August 2, 1999. Resolves an incompatibility with Internet Explorer 5 for Windows.
  3. Version 1.0.2 - September 22, 1999. Minor bug fixes.
  4. Version 1.0.3 - October 1, 1999. Minor changes to allow application versions.
  5. Version 1.0.4 - November 1, 1999. Enhancement (animation) of "Graphical Analysis".
  6. Version 1.0.5 - January 7, 2000. Minor bug fixes.
  7. Version 1.1 - January 28, 2000. First application version.
  8. Version 1.1 - March 1, 2000. (i) Common applet/application version. (ii) Ability to save pictures in gif and jpg formats.
  9. Version 1.1.1 - May 5, 2000. (i) Save pictures in png format. (ii) 8th order Runge-Kutta integration of ODEs. (iii) Enhancements of application version user interface.
  10. Version 1.1.2 - October 20, 2000. (i) Minor bug fixes. (ii) Enhancements of user interface and application preferences. (iii) Iterate(1d) has animation and includes 2d maps. (iv) Return maps include 1d maps. (v) Improved box-counting. (vi) Saved files not all compatible with previous versions.
  11. Version 1.1.3 - April 24, 2001. (i) Major enhancement of Iterate(2d) to allow investigation of fixed points of two dimensional maps and compositions. The zero-curves of x - f(x,y) and y - g(x,y) may be viewed in the x-y plane, accurate positions and eigenvalues of fixed points may also be obtained. (ii) ODEs: the two-well oscillator [f(x) = x(1-x^2)] and Duffing oscillator [f(x) = -x(1+x^2)] are included. (iii) Version 1.1.3 will read and convert files saved from version 1.1.2 but the new file format is incompatible with earlier ones. (iv) Minor bug fixes and user interface enhancements.
  12. Version 1.1.4 - October 22, 2001. (i) Minor bug fixes and enhancements. (ii) Version 1.1.4 will read and convert files saved from versions 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 but the new file format is incompatible with earlier ones.
  13. Version 1.1.5 - June 1, 2002. (i) Minor bug fixes. (ii) Some features not documented in "Exploring Chaos: Theory and Experiment" temporarily removed.