Does God Play Dice?: Mathematics of Chaos - Hardcover

Einstein did not believe that "God plays dice". He laid the foundations for today's thinking that the universe is governed by the immutable laws of physics - there is no room for chance. But these foundations may be built on sand. The new science of chaos is forcing scientists to rethink even the most fundamental ideas about the way in which the universe behaves. Chaos theory has already shown that systems obeying precise laws can nevertheless act in a random manner. "Does God Play Dice?" explains the new theories of systems that obey simple laws but which are neither constant nor predictable. Ian Stewart reveals a strange universe. A universe in which nothing may be as it seems, where familiar geometrical shapes such as circles and ellipses give way to infinitely complex structures known as fractals. In terms that anyone can understand "Does God Play Dice?" tells the story of this new science and the implications chaos has for notions of predictability and the verification of scientific theories. Chaos is a whole new world of ideas and possibilities, a new kind of mathematics, a fundamental insight into nature itself, and it brings us closer to an understanding of literally everything.