Table I. Definitions of concepts related to the history of chaos theory.*.

Table I. Definitions of concepts related to the history of chaos theory.*
• Causality principle. Every effect has an antecedent proximate cause.
• Determinism. A philosophical proposition that every event is physically determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.
• Predictability. This refers to the degree that a correct forecast of a system's state can be made either qualitatively or quantitatively
• Model. A pattern, plan, representation, or description designed to show the structure or workings of an object, System, or concept.
• Dynamical system. A System that changes over time in both a causal and a deterministic manner; ie, its future depends only on phenomena from its past and its present (causality) and each given initial condition will lead to only one given later state of the System (determinism). Systems that are noisy or stochastic, in the sense of showing randomness, are not dynamical Systems, and the probability theory is the one to apply to their analysis.
• Phase space. An abstract space in which ail possible states of a System are represented which, each possible state of the System corresponding to one unique point in the phase space.
• Sensitivity to initial conditions. This is when a change in one variable has the consequence of an exponential change in the system.
• Integrable system. In mathematics, this refers to a System of differential equations for which solutions can be found. In mechanics, this refer to a system that is quasiperiodic.
• Linear System. A system is said to be linear when the whole is exactly equal to the sum of its components, Attractor» A set to which a dynamical System evolves after a long enough time.
• Characteristic Lyapynov time. The characteristic time of a system is defined as the delay when changes from the initial point are multiplied by 10 in the phase space.
• Feedback. A response to information, that either increases effects (positive feedback), or decreases them (negative feedback), or induces a cyclic phenomenon.
• Self-similarity. This means that an object is composed of subunits and sub subunits on multiple levels that (statistically) resemble the structure of the whole object, However; in every day life, there are necessarily lower and upper boundaries over which such self-similar behavior applies.
• Fractal. Is a geometrical object satisfying two criteria: self-similarity and fractional dimensionality.
• Fractal dimension. Let an object in a n-dimensions space be covered by the smallest number of open spheres of radius r. The fractal dimension is log(N)/log(1/r) when r tends towards 0.
*Some of the terms are used with different meanings in fields other than physics. For example, the adjective linear pharmacokinetics describes a body clearance of a constant fraction per unit of time of the total amount of a substance in the body while a nonlinear pharmacokinetics describes the elimination of a constant quantity of cormpound per unit of time. AIso feedback is a well-known term in biology or medicine, while its use in physics is less familiar to nonphysicists.