MAE5790-1 Course introduction and overview

Historical and logical overview of nonlinear dynamics. The structure of the course: work our way up from one to two to three-dimensional systems. Simple examples of linear vs. nonlinear systems. 1-D systems. Why pictures are more powerful than formulas for analyzing nonlinear systems. Fixed points. Stable and unstable fixed points. Example: Logistic equation in population biology.

Reading: Strogatz, "Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos", Chapter 1 and Section 2.0--2.3.