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Explain what is a "Strange Attractor"
A strange attractor is a concept from the study of dynamical systems. It can be thought of as a pattern in dynamics which does not reduce to any simpler or more comprehensible patterns, and if plotted on an appropriate chart will appear as chaotic.
Consider the behaviour of a pendulum, or the flow of water in a stream. Both are easy to understand in simple terms – as time passes, they repeat the same actions over and over again exactly.
However, there are many more interesting dynamical systems out there in the world that do not reduce to such simple behaviour.
There are some dynamical systems that appear to change forever, yet never reach any particular end-point. These are known as strange attractors. They are the most interesting dynamics of all.
For example, consider the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction. A mixture of chemicals will react in a certain way, emitting light and changing colour over time. If you look at the behaviour of this chemical system over any period of time, it will be difficult to work out what is going on – it appears chaotic.
However, if you plot these changes on a graph (y-axis = colour change; x-axis = time), it becomes clear that the behaviour is repeating itself – the points on the graph trace out an exact curve known as a strange attractor.