TRAJECTORY (Stability of a)
Charles François (2004). TRAJECTORY (Stability of a), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(2): 3604.
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3604 ▶ |
| Object type | Methodology or model |
J.L. CHABERT and A.D. DALMEDICO write: “The concept of stability may take different meanings. The oldest one, adopted by LAGRANGE, corresponded to the strict periodicity of a trajectory. POISSON broadened the notion to the case in which the trajectory comes back not necessarily to its starting point, but an infinity of times in the close neighborhood to this starting point” (1992, p.296).
At the end of 19th century, POINCAR- demonstrated that some trajectories are not stable, i.e. that after diverging from their starting point, they remain forever far from it. He thus introduced the seeds of chaos theory.