Reading recommendation for deterministic and stochastic dynamics

Question

I'm thinking of taking an undergraduate course on deterministic and stochastic dynamics and am looking for some reading material on the subject before making up my mind.

The course suggests that the following will be covered:

• Calculus of variations
• Lagrangian dynamics from Hamilton's principle
• The strange attractor
• Lyapunov exponents
• Random Walks

Thanks.

Answer 1

Try taking a look at the "chaos comics," Dynamics: the geometry of behavior by Abraham and Shaw, for some feel for the field. That said, it won't tell you a lot about manipulating equations and so forth, but I think it brings up big questions and concepts central to the field.