Celestial Encounters

The Origins of Chaos and Stability

Florin Diacu, Philip J. Holmes

$72.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Princeton University Press
08 June 1999

Mathematics & Sciences; Chaos theory; Theoretical & mathematical astronomy

Series: Princeton Science Library

"Celestial Encounters is for anyone who has ever wondered about the foundations of chaos. In 1888, the 34-year-old Henri Poincare submitted a paper that was to change the course of science, but not before it underwent significant changes itself. ""The Three-Body Problem and the Equations of Dynamics"" won a prize sponsored by King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway and the journal Acta Mathematica, but after accepting the prize, Poincare found a serious mistake in his work. While correcting it, he discovered the phenomenon of chaos. Starting with the story of Poincare's work, Florin Diacu and Philip Holmes trace the history of attempts to solve the problems of celestial mechanics first posed in Isaac Newton's Principia in 1686. In describing how mathematical rigor was brought to bear on one of our oldest fascinations--the motions of the heavens--they introduce the people whose ideas led to the flourishing field now called nonlinear dynamics. In presenting the modern theory of dynamical systems, the models underlying much of modern science are described pictorially, using the geometrical language invented by Poincare.

More generally, the authors reflect on mathematical creativity and the roles that chance encounters, politics, and circumstance play in it."

By: Florin Diacu, Philip J. Holmes
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 197mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9780691005454
ISBN 10: 0691005451
Series: Princeton Science Library
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 08 June 1999
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface and Acknowledgments A Note to the Reader 1. A Great Discovery - And a Mistake 2. Symbolic Dynamics 3. Collisions and Other Singularities 4. Stability 5. KAM Theory Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews for Celestial Encounters: The Origins of Chaos and Stability

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1997 ""[S]tories about the history of celestial mechanics are the subject of this delightful book. The authors interweave numerous anecdotes about the personalities involved in the discoveries with technical details of the mathematical ideas themselves... a pleasant mix of things technical and things historical... written in a lively and informative way.""--Robert L. Devaney, Science ""This book, which should be required reading for every nonspecialist astronomer, may well be headed toward becoming a classic.""--Choice ""A particular strength of Celestial Encounters is the impression, conveyed with a deft touch, that mathematics is an international and collective effort made by real people for real reasons in the real world. All the players in the drama, alive or dead, come over as human beings who happen to have a passion for mathematics and an ability to fulfill that passion. This feature alone justifies buying the book.""--Ian Stewart, New Scientist ""A lively introduction to the fascinating story of celestial mechanics.""--Jacques Laskar, Nature ""Throughout the book one finds a vital quality that derives from the authors' real success in presenting mathematics as a human endeavor... A valuable and accessible contribution to the chaos literature.""--June Barrow-Green, Isis ""A pleasant mix of things technical and things historical... Written in a lively and informative way.""--Robert Devaney, Science"