Complexity for Dummies

You can download the following paper at my Academia.edu page.

A Primer on Self-Organization:
With some tabletop physics you can do at home

Contents:

Entropy and Self-Organization on the Table Top

Chasing Molecules

Call the Plumber

Meanwhile, on the Table Top

Beyond Entropy: Phase Space and Attractors

So, what ABOUT entropy, phase spaces, and attractors?

Abstract: Concepts of self-organization and complexity originating in statistical mechanics have proven useful in many disciplines. This paper gives an informal development of basic concepts of entropy, irreversibility, phase space, and self-organization using a bit of table-top physics anyone can observe. I placed ink droplets into a tumbler of water and photographed the evolution of this system over four hours. Vertical convention cells (self-organization) had appeared by eight (8) minutes but were almost gone by two (2) hours and twenty (20) minutes.