WWAVETANKCOMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS LAB

INSTRUMENT 07 / CHAOS BENCH

Sensitivity in
deterministic systems.

A laboratory for deterministic chaos. Compare nearly identical systems and watch a microscopic difference become macroscopic uncertainty.

PHASE SPACE / TWIN TRAJECTORIESYELLOW A · TEAL B
DETERMINISTIC INTEGRATION · NO RANDOMNESS0.00 ms/frame
SEPARATION1.00e-4distance between twin states
GROWTH RATE0.000finite-time Lyapunov estimate
STATE A / B1.800 / 1.800first state coordinate
MODEL TIME0.0integrated time units
WHAT IS HAPPENING?

How long can two almost-identical motions remain alike?

REPRESENTATIVE EQUATIONd²θ/dt² = f(θ₁, θ₂, dθ₁/dt, dθ₂/dt)

Yellow and teal begin nearly superimposed. Their tiny initial offset eventually grows into visibly different motion. The pair is not being nudged by fresh randomness. Both copies follow exactly the same rule; they differ only by the tiny initial offset you chose.

The growing separation is the point. A deterministic system can still become practically unpredictable because a useful forecast would require initial measurements of impossible precision. The displayed growth rate turns that loss of predictability into something you can measure.