The goal of this Third Edition is the same as previous editions: to provide a good foundation - and a joyful experience - for anyone who'd like to learn about nonlinear dynamics and chaos from an applied perspective.

Steven Strogatz is the Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. His honors include MIT's highest teaching prize, a lifetime achievement award for the communication of mathematics to the general public, and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research on a wide variety of nonlinear systems from synchronized fireflies to small-world networks has been featured in the pages of Scientific American, Nature, Discover, Business Week, and The New York Times.