Chaotic dynamics of falling disks

Stuart B. Field (), M. Klaus, M. G. Moore and Franco Nori
Additional contact information
Stuart B. Field: Colorado State University
M. Klaus: The University of Michigan
M. G. Moore: The University of Michigan
Franco Nori: The University of Michigan

Nature, 1997, vol. 388, issue 6639, 252-254

Abstract: Abstract The study of the motion of flat bodies falling in a viscous mediumdates back at least to Newton1 and Maxwell2, and is relevant to problems in meteorology3, sedimentology4, aerospace engineering1 and chemical engineering5,6,7,8. More recent theoretical studies9,10,11,12 have emphasized the role played by deterministic chaos, although many experimental studies1,5,6,7,8,13,14 were performed before the development of such ideas. Here we report experimental observations of the dynamics of disks falling in water/glycerol mixtures. We find four distinct types of motion, which are mapped out in a ‘phase diagram’. The apparently complex behaviour can be reduced to a series of one-dimensional maps, which display a discontinuity at the crossover from periodic to chaotic motion. This discontinuity leads to an unusual intermittency transition15, not previously observed experimentally, between the two behaviours.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/40817

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