Ask A Scientist Mathematics Archive

Question: I have a question to anyone who knows what I am talking about.  
What applications has the CHAOS theory been applied to?  I am especially 
interested in the space shuttle, satellites etc.  If you know anything, please 
leave a personal letter to elmo in Australia.  Thanks.  
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Chaos theory has been applied in just about every field you can 
think of, from aerospace engineering to zoology.  My Ph.D. thesis focused on 
the use of chaos theory to develop a reaction rate theory.  Although, I do not 
specifically know of any applications of chaos theory to the space shuttle, I 
have heard of some work in nonrigid body dynamics which used ideas from the 
chaos theory.  Also, the originator of the field, Henri Poincare (a French 
mathematical physicist who published several fundamental manuscripts on the 
subject in the late 1800's) was interested in celestial mechanics, and a lot 
of the work in chaos theory was originally motivated by this field.  Hope you 
have found this interesting, elmo!  I recommend Gleick's book Chaos to all who 
are interested in this subject.
Topper
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