释义 |
chaotic, a.|keɪˈɒtɪk| [f. chaos, app. on the analogy of other Greek-derived words in -otic, as demotic, erotic, hypnotic, where the ending has various origins. (Such a formation would have been normal from the derived Gr. vb. χαό-ειν, in passive, to be reduced to chaos; cf. βιωτικός f. βιό-ειν). In mod.F. chaotique.] 1. Of or pertaining to the primordial chaos; in the state of chaos.
1713Derham Phys. Theol. iii. ii. (R.) At that time (whatever it was) when the terraqueous globe was in a chaotick state. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. II. 259 Janus is by him supposed to be the chaotic deity. 1794Sullivan View Nat. I. 87 During the separation of the atmosphere and the ocean from the chaotic mass. 1878Tait & Stewart Unseen Univ. ii. §85. 95 That the present solar system gradully condensed into its present state from a chaotic mass of nebulous material. 2. transf. and fig. Resembling chaos; utterly confused or disordered.
1747Johnson Plan Eng. Dict. Wks. IX. 191 Translators, who have formed a chaotic dialect of heterogeneous phrases. 1756Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. Wks. I. 61 In these early and unrefined ages, the jarring parts of a certain chaotick constitution supported their several pretensions by the sword. 1837Macaulay Bacon, Ess. (1854) I. 349 Opinions were still in a state of chaotic anarchy. 1875Poste Gaius i. 81 The rules..are at first sight chaotic and bewildering.
Add:3. Math. Pertaining to, characteristic of or characterized by chaos (*chaos n. 3 c); pertaining to systems which exhibit chaos.
[1974Science 15 Nov. 646/2 Episodes of apparently chaotic behavior.] 1975R. M. May in Jrnl. Theoret. Biol. LI. 512 A regime which can only be described as ‘chaotic’ (an apt term coined by Li & Yorke, 1974). 1975Li & Yorke in Amer. Math. Monthly LXXXII. 986 In this paper we analyze a situation in which the sequence {ob}Fn(x){cb} is non-periodic and might be called ‘chaotic’. Theorem 1 shows that chaotic behavior for (1.1) will result in any situation in which [etc.]. 1977Lect. Notes Physics LXXI. 337 A good example of such a ‘chaotic’ signal..is provided by the time dependence of the magnetic field of earth. 1978Progress Theoret. Physics LIX. 1029/1 Dynamic systems that are ‘chaotic’ in the physicists' intuitive sense. 1990Scope Summer 11/2 Populations of birds, insects and other animals fluctuate in apparently chaotic ways. 1990Times 9 Aug. 13/5 One of the tasks facing students of complex chaotic systems, meteorological or social, is to investigate fully the range of predictability in each case. 1992New Scientist 14 Mar. 56/2 Jim Lesurf describes a seemingly neat idea, namely using a chaotic function to generate pseudo random numbers for use in cryptosystems. 1994Nature 6 Jan. 33/2 The Earth-crossing asteroids include rocky and metallic objects derived from main-belt asteroids through collisional fragmentation and chaotic dynamics. |