44.1 Introduction to dynamics

The additional package dynamics includes several functions to create various graphical representations of discrete dynamical systems and fractals, and an implementation of the Runge-Kutta 4th-order numerical method for solving systems of differential equations.

To use the functions in this package you must first load it with load("dynamics").

Starting with Maxima 5.12, the dynamics package now uses the function plot2d to do the graphs. The commands that produce graphics (with the exception of julia and mandelbrot) now accept any options of plot2d, including the option to change among the various graphical interfaces, using different plot styles and colors, and representing one or both axes in a logarithmic scale. The old options domain, pointsize, xcenter, xradius, ycenter, yradius, xaxislabel and yaxislabel are not accepted in this new version.

All programs will now accept any variables names, and not just x and y as in the older versions. Two required parameters have changes in two of the programs: evolution2d now requires a list naming explicitely the two independent variables, and the horizontal range for orbits no longer requires a step size; the range should only specify the variable name, and the minimum and maximum values; the number of steps can now be changed with the option nticks.