Qfwfq Posted March 17, 2012 Report Share Posted March 17, 2012 (edited) Actually, it isn't really a requisite for the system to be closed. More in general we talk about boundary conditions and when the problem under study it time evolution these include initial conditions. If the system is open these are only part of the former. So it does make sense to say an open system is deterministic and discuss its degre of chaoticity, only that knowledge of initial conditions isn't sufficient. In weather forecasting for instance, they must rely on reasonable assumptions about things such as solar and volcanic activity because the atmosphere is not a closed system at all. Forecasts are conditional to how closely the assumptions turn out valid. Of course, the degree of chaoticity establishes what kind of margin there is on all boundary conditions, also those further to the initial ones. As for compound pendulums, I would tend to say the system per se is chaotic but has some solutions with motion which can be described simply. Edited March 17, 2012 by Qfwfq ooops! CraigD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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