In this section we heuristically introduce some of the basic
terminology used in nonlinear dynamics.
This material should be read quickly, as background to the rest of the book.
It might also be helpful to
read Appendix H, Historical Comments, before delving into
the more technical material. For precise
definitions of the mathematical notions introduced in this
section we highly recommend V. I. Arnold's
masterful introduction to the theory of ordinary differential
equations.
The
goal in this section is to begin using the vocabulary of nonlinear dynamics even
before this vocabulary is precisely defined .