Chaos theory is being introduced to a new audience through jewelery creations influenced by mathematical entities known as strange attractors.
The disorderly nature of chaos also governs a cloud of smoke or the churning of ocean waves. By creating jewels based on a mathematical description of chaos, Eleonora Bilotta and her team have discovered a way to stop chaotic systems from moving at their usual hectic speed. Bilotta, a professor of interdisciplinary psychology at the University of Calabria in Italy, believes non-experts will also find something appealing in the swirl jewelry forms inspired by this kind of chaotic mapping. This type of chaotic mapping has many practical roles, including developing computer models for weather forecasting and designing neural networks.
What is Chaos Theory?
It is basically the study of systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions such as chaos theory, weather and financial markets. Edward Lorenz, who developed the contemporary theory of chaos, compared this seemingly unpredictable response to the effect that the wings of a butterfly can have on a distant hurricane in 1972. In other words, a small change to a system can have a significant, unpredictable impact.
Behavior of a Chaotic System
Although the behavior of a chaotic system may seem unexpected, it is sometimes characterized by a "strange attractor", a complex arrangement of points that shows how the system evolves in phase space. Bizarre attractors often resemble folded strands with many different evolutionary routes, such as threads.
While chaos served as a model for human behavior, including emotional control and interpersonal connections, Bilotta was first fascinated by chaos. But in 2005, a turning point in his interest was when Leon Chua, a noted researcher on chaos and emeritus professor of electrical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, encouraged him and his colleagues to create music based on his research with strange attractors.
According to Bilotta, after analyzing the attractors that existed at the time, we explored the parameter space of these systems and discovered that a large number of definitions were possible. This allowed us to explore the chaos space and build a preliminary toolset. In a recent study, Bilotta and colleagues outline ways to leverage 3D printing and metal fabrication to transfer the movement of chaotic systems from the virtual to the physical world.
The team began by examining Chua's circuit, named after a benchtop lab experiment he built in 1983 using ordinary parts like capacitors and a special diode. This simple device, when activated, exhibits chaos in the form of erratic current oscillations. A wide variety of strange attractors that depend on the parameters of the circuit are revealed by mapping the current to voltage.
Chaotic Design Studies
Bilotta claims that during their 20 years of researching chaos, he and his team found more than 1000 distinctive attractants for Chua's circuit. Recent chaotic design studies are partly inspired by the diversity of these attractive types. Bilotta, who has developed a new method for creating distinctive shapes using computer modeling, thinks it could help more people appreciate the beauty of chaos.
According to Bilotta, it's easier said than done to transform a mathematically simulated entity into a three-dimensional object in the real world. Because of their fractal nature, chaotic attractors have elaborate details that become visible at smaller length scales. Also, mathematical curves can sometimes be so close to overlap that it can be difficult to simulate them in a 3D model.
To overcome these challenges, the team had to smooth out some of the complexities to simplify the physical representation of the attractors and produce the attractors for printing. The team used the design tools to develop computer models of the simplified tractors and changed some parameters to make them more aesthetically pleasing. After completing a design, the researchers used 3D printing to produce a resin model, which is then used as a mold to cast the jewelry. In addition to Chua's attractors, the researchers created models of Lorenz's butterfly as well as other well-known chaotic attractors.
According to Bilotta, these computer simulations could offer scientists a new way to investigate the properties of these attractors. Bilotta also hopes these jewelry will inspire students and non-artists to better understand the ideas behind the art. According to Bilotta, the study of mathematical and philosophical concepts regarding the nature of the world and the infinite possibilities that exist within it is where the beauty of chaos lies.
Bilotta and colleagues plan to continue their research into using AI in modeling to find new, unpredictable chaotic attractors. They also want to display these pieces of jewelry in science and art museums so people can touch them and maybe even buy one for themselves. According to Bilotta, this will not only highlight our work, but also encourage and inform the public about the potential of this cutting-edge topic.
Bilotta and colleagues plan to continue their research into using AI in modeling to find new, unpredictable chaotic attractors. They also want to display these pieces of jewelry in science and art museums so people can touch them and maybe even buy one for themselves. According to Bilotta, this will not only highlight our work, but also encourage and inform the public about the potential of this cutting-edge topic.
Source: physics.aps.org/articles/v16/32
Günceleme: 06/03/2023 15:34