Diffusion of innovations dynamics, biological growth and catenary function

Renato Guseo

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2016, vol. 464, issue C, 1-10

Abstract: The catenary function has a well-known role in determining the shape of chains and cables supported at their ends under the force of gravity. This enables design using a specific static equilibrium over space. Its reflected version, the catenary arch, allows the construction of bridges and arches exploiting the dual equilibrium property under uniform compression. In this paper, we emphasize a further connection with well-known aggregate biological growth models over time and the related diffusion of innovation key paradigms (e.g., logistic and Bass distributions over time) that determine self-sustaining evolutionary growth dynamics in naturalistic and socio-economic contexts. Moreover, we prove that the ‘local entropy function’, related to a logistic distribution, is a catenary and vice versa. This special invariance may be explained, at a deeper level, through the Verlinde’s conjecture on the origin of gravity as an effect of the entropic force.

Keywords: Hyperbolic cosine; Catenary; Logistic model; Bass models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:464:y:2016:i:c:p:1-10

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.07.015

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