Canadian Medical Guide > Physical Sciences > Natural Sciences > Mathematics > Nonlinear Dynamics Terms and Definitions

Nonlinear Dynamics

Medical Definition:	The study of systems which respond disproportionately (nonlinearly) to initial conditions or perturbing stimuli. Nonlinear systems may exhibit "chaos" which is classically characterized as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Chaotic systems, while distinguished from more ordered periodic systems, are not random. When their behavior over time is appropriately displayed (in "phase space"), constraints are evident which are described by "strange attractors". Phase space representations of chaotic systems, or strange attractors, usually reveal fractal (FRACTALS) self-similarity across time scales. Natural, including biological, systems often display nonlinear dynamics and chaos.
Guide Notes:	a math principle applied to theoret models
Also Called:	Chaos Theory,Models, Nonlinear
Previously Indexed:	Mathematics (1974-1993),Models, Biological (1970-1993)

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