Drip
Drip
Drip
99
1. Introduction
Chaodynamics is arecentarea of research(Ott suggestion of Rossler(1977), which showsthat
1981, Ford 1983, Bai Lin 1984, Jensen 1987); even drops falling from a leaky faucet behave chaotically
its name is recent(Andrey1986).Itconcernsthe underappropriateconditions.Otherexperiments,
occurrence of complex and seemingly random pheno-demonstrations or computer simulations have been
mena in non-linear but
otherwisedeterministic recently proposed to introduce students to the field
systems.Common examples of this
behaviour of non-linear phenomena (e.g. Berry 1981, Viet et a/
include the results of tossing a coin, or the swirling 1983. Salas Brito and Vargas 1986,Briggs 1987), but
paths of leaves falling from a tree on a windy day. curiously none of them deals with liquids despite the
Similar aperiodic phenomena have been observedin fact that much original work has been done on such
animpressivenumber of experimentalsystems, systems. In our experiment the students investigate
even in somepreviouslythoughttobevery well the dripping behaviour of a leaky faucet, a system
understood, as is the case of the driven pendulum which remains incompletely understood and hence
(Koch et a/ 1983).Electrical,optical,mechanical, may still offer some surprises to both teachers and
chemical,hydrodynamicaland biological systems students. In this system, the students can measure
can all exhibit the kindof dynamical instabilities that the time interval between successive drops, the drip
produce chaotic behaviour (Jensen 1987 and refer- interval-as we, following Martien et a/ (1985), will
encestherein).Despitethis,recentdiscoveries in call it-as a function of the flow rate of water.
the field of non-lineardynamicsare still not well Thestudentsbecomeacquainted with thecon-
known to many undergraduate physics students. cepts of non-linear dynamics (as
deterministic
With the above ideas in mind, we have developed chaos, attractors, subharmonic bifurcations, and the
anexperimentthatcanbe useful forintroducing like) by reading the basic literature, paying particu-
some of the ideas and methods used in the descrip- lar attention
to
the logistic map (May
1976,
tion of non-linear chaotic systems. Our experiment Feigenbaum 1980, Hofstadter 1981, Schuster 1984,
follows the work of Martien et a/ (1985). based on a Jensen1987).Then,sincemanyaspects of this
100 H N Nuriez
Ybpez et a1
l b)
08 0.8.
-
F
0 4 0.4.
0 0 4 08 0 0 4 08
IC)
0.8.
z
0 4-
0 0 4 0.0 0 0 4 08
Xn X”
Figure 1. Return maps, i.e. plots of x,l-, versus x,, for large values of n , obtained from the logistic map for different
values of U : ( a ) U = 1.5; ( b )p = 3.3; (c) U = 3.5; ( d ) U = 3.8. This illustrates the dynamics of the map up to the four
cycle as well as the chaotic attractor for p > p x .
depend on the precise form of the function f ( x ) . as appearance of attractors of period one, two. four
long as it has a single quadratic maximum but to be and of a one-dimensional chaotic attractor can be
specific we will analyse the dynamics of the logistic appreciated in these plots. Figure 2 illustrates this
map. This mapping is defined by kind of behaviour in adifferentandmoreglobal
way; it shows a plot of the large n behaviour of the
f(x) = / d l - x ) ( 2 ) iterates (i.e. the attractors) of the logistic map as a
function of thevalue of p . Thisgraph gives a
where 0+<4 is parameter
a measuring the ‘pictorialmeaning’tothe way theonset of chaos
strength of thenon-linearity.Withthischoicefor occurs via sequence
a of ‘pitchfork’(period-
f ( x ) . equation (1) describes a non-linear and non- doubling) bifurcations as the value of p changes. It
invertiblemap of theunitintervalonitself.The also shows the critical dependence of the behaviour
evolution of the sequence of x, generated by this with the value of this parameter. For values of p
simple equation exhibits a transformation from per- between 1 and 3 , andalmost all initialvalues x ( , ,
iodic to chaotic behaviour as the control parameter there is a single point attractor (figure l(a)). Then.
p is increased.Let us seehowthisoccurs.The as p is increasedbetween 3 and 4, thedynamics
behaviour of the sequence of iterates is trivial when changes in surprising ways. First, for3 < p S ( l + G)
p = 0: for every initial value x,, all the iterates are thestationarysolutionbifurcatestoaperiod-two
zero.Wecan say thenthatthesolutionquickly attractor-theperiod of thesolutionhasdoubled
reaches an attractor, the single point x=O; this is and its frequencyhalved,hencethenames of
called aperiod-onecycle,orbit or attractor.For period-doubling or subharmonic bifurcationgiven to
values ofp between 0 and 1, the large n behaviour of the phenomena-as can be seen in the bifurcation
the x , is identical;theyapproachthepoint x=0 diagram(figure 2), wherethesolutionhopsback
after a certain numberof steps. But for larger values and forth between the upper and lower branches of
of p the dynamics is much more interesting as can be the pitchfork, and in figure l ( b ) . As p is increased
easily verified using a hand-held calculator. Various further.thesolutionbifurcatesagaintoaperiod-
types of stationary solutions of the logistic map are four attractor, then to a period-eight attractor and
exemplified by figures 1 and 2. so on. Thissequence (or cascade) of bifurcations
Figure 1 shows return maps (plots of x , , , versus continues indefinitely, but the intervalof values of p
x , ) for ,U = 1.5, 3.3.3.5 and 3.8. The successive in which a given periodic orbit acts as an attractor
102 H N Nlinez Ykpez et a1
P E -Pn-l
6 = lim “4.6692.. . (3)
3. The dripping faucet experiment
n-= ,P,+, -P,,
Theapparatusused in theexperiment is rather
simple and widely available. We use a Commodore
untilacriticalvalue = 3.5699... is reached(Fei- 64microcomputerfordataacquisitionandsubse-
genbaum 1978, 1979). This value marks the begin- quentanalysisanddisplay.The inclusion of an
ning of the aperiodic regime: the iterates seem to automatic data-taking procedure is fundamental in
wander erratically around a subset of the unit inter- an experiment which requiresthetaking of 2000
val. If we increase p further, windows of periodic data points every time it is run. In fact. this repre-
motion of every integer period reappear. Chaoticor sentsanadditionaladvantage,for it allows the
periodic motion can be found for suitable values of students to learn simple interfacing techniques and
,u>pm.A complete discussion of the properties of to work with a microcomputer-assisted experiment.
the logistic map can be found in the accountgiven by The basic apparatus is shownschematically i n
Feigenbaum (1983). For a more complete discussion figure 3. It consists of a large reservoir of water (a
of theperioddoublingas well asotherpossible largeMariottebottle)keptataconstantpressure
routes to chaos in a dynamical system see Kadanoff with the help of a float valve. The water can flow
(1983). through a valve to a plastic tube with a nozzle at the
As with manyotherpropertiesdiscovered in end.Thisvalve,as well as the float valve,were
systemsmaking a period-doublingtransitionto obtained from a used automobile carburetor. With
chaos, the constant d is universal in the sense that it its help we can control the dripping rate, which is the
is found to be valid for a large number of systems control parameter in our experiment. Drops falling
and not only for the logistic map. For example, if the fromthe nozzle passthrough
an
optocoupler
dripping
faucet effectively follows the
period- (GeneralElectric H23L1, with aSchmidttrigger
doubling route to chaos and we were able to calcu- included at the output) which produces a TTL pulse
late 8, we should find a numerical value very close to for each drop. The pulses are sent,via a very simple
that given in (3). Now, obviously, not every feature interface (figure 4), to the user
port of the
of the logistic map is shared by other systems, for Commodore64microcomputer.Thecomputer is
example, the values quoted above for the onset of used to store the data, to compute the drip interval
Figure 2. A section of the bifurcation diagram of the logistic map. The graph shows the asymptotic behaviour of x,, for
values of ,U between 2.94 and 4.
0 75
2
c
v
2 050
+
c
4
0.25
3.0 3 4 38
P
Chaos in a dripping faucet 103
WoterInlet
Interface
Emltter-detector
par
Mlcrocomputer
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up. We use a float valve (marked 'level control' in the diagram)
to maintain the water level in an upper reservoir (not shown).
and to display the return maps obtained. With this preferringinsteadtousethe valve settingasan
arrangementstudentsareabletotake,storeand indicator. The program we use to analyse the data
analyse up to3072 drips (using 6 Kbyte of memory). computes a mean dripping rate. The mean dripping
The
machine-language subroutine
used
for rates students are able to investigate under experi-
acquiring the data and measuring the drip interval mental conditions vary from 0.1 to 40 drips/s, a rate
T, is capable of taking data up to a rate of 1.2 kHz, at which the drops become a continuous stream of
far above the dripping rates occurringin the experi- water.Inthisinterval,thesystemmovesfroma
ment, and has an estimated resolutionof 50 p . This stableperiod-oneattractorandundergoesperiod
estimation has been tested with good results with the doublingsuntilstrangeattractorsappearfordrip-
help of a signal generator (Wavetek 181) used as the pingratesgreaterthan7drips/s.Atsuchlarge
input of our data-taking device. dripping rates the behaviouris irregular and, surely,
The flow rate is controlled by means of the car- is very complex (figures 5 and 6). In fact, much to
buretor valve, but we do not measure it directly. our surprise the dynamics of the system is very rich
Figure 4. The interface is a single 74LSOO chip. The connections to the microcomputer user's port are shown
Motched emltter-detector par H23 L1
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User's p o r t
104 H N Nunez Ykpez et a1
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i
412 4 L
l
, l
l
384- , I
384 412 440 0 30 60 0 64 128
l
1 1 ,
v - i 158 , l
105 i I l
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Figures. Example of the experimental results shown as T,,,, (vertical axes) versus T,, (horizontal axes) graphs
redrawn from the printout of our data. Periodic behaviour, ( o ) - ( c ) : complex chaotic behaviour. ( d ) - ( f ) , AI1 values of
time are in milliseconds.
and shows patterns not discussed in Martien et al. period-doublingsequencecan be appreciated;the
All of this hasgeneratedagreatdeal of interest dripping behaviour shows attractors of period one,
among our students. two and four prior to the chaotic regime. With the
Typical experimentalresultsareshownas T,,,, current experimental arrangement it is not possible
versus T,, plots in figures 5 and 6 (notice the qualita- to ascertain precisely the ranges of stability of the
tive similarity of figures 5(a)-(c) with figures l ( a ) - attractors but. roughly, the students have found the
(c). These are plots of the 2000 typical points taken periodic attractors to be present up to 7 dripsis. For
each time the experiment is run. The beginning of a greater dripping rateswe observe chaotic behaviour,
signalled by whatseem to bestrangeattractors:
typical examples are shownin figures 5(d)-V) and in
figure 6. This last attractorhasbeen singled out
because it illustratesthefolding,stretchingand
fractioning that occur in the attractors in the process
of becoming more complex, as a result of increasing
thedrippingrate.Wehavenot been abletosee
periodic attractors of period larger than four. due
perhaps to the inherent noise in the system or to the
somewhatpoorcontrolofdrippingratesallowed
by the carburetor valve. But, occasionally, students
wereable to observe cycles of period three
immersed in thechaoticregime. As theseobser-
vations are very sensitive to the valve setting and to
vibrationsproducedneartheapparatus. we have
beenunabletoreproducethemat will with the
114 ; I I
I
I
current experimental arrangement.
The result of the experiment has been taken as an
114 122 130
Figure 6 . Another example of an attractor in the chaotic indication of a period-doubling route to chaos in the
region. Note the folding and separation developed as i t system, but to be conclusivefurtherevaluation is
becomes a more complex attractor. Axes and units as for needed. For example, it may requirethecompu-
figure 5 . tation of universal parameters like d. But before we
Chaos in a dripping faucet 105