Fermi-Pasta-Ulam
Current studies have led me to meddle with the famous FPU (Fermi-Pasta-Ulam) problem. Unsuprising event, since it is one of the cornerstones of the study of computational physics.
It was one of the first problems that was tackled not using analytic math tools, but using high speed digital computing. The reason behind this sort of approach was the difficulty of dealing with nonlinear equations; something that is near impossible to deal with exact analytical attacks. Digital computers and numerical analysis however is the ideal tool to conduct these sort of chaotic computational experiments with.
A lot has been written about the FPU problem (try the wikipedia article for a decent summary), but an immediate way to grasp the problem is by hearing how it sounds. The system described in the problem consists of masses coupled together, the usual scalar wave equation with nonlinear coupling terms added. Here the initial gaussian pulse oscillates in the system without damping and with increasing nonlinearity.
Another example is done with a custom VST plugin. The system is driven with two pulse oscillators.
Tags: chaos, Computer music, Electronic music, partial differential equation, wave equation