Search for Chaotic Behavior in a Flapping Flag

TL;DR

This study investigates whether a flapping flag exhibits low-dimensional chaos by analyzing the timing of its flaps under various wind conditions, concluding that the behavior is more consistent with random, exponentially distributed times.

Contribution

It provides an undergraduate experimental approach to distinguish between low and higher dimensional chaos in a physical system.

Findings

No evidence of low-dimensional chaos in flag flapping times

Flapping times follow an exponential distribution, indicating randomness

Differentiates between low and higher dimensional chaotic behaviors

Abstract

We measured the correlation of the times between successive flaps of a flag for a variety of wind speeds and found no evidence of low dimensional chaotic behavior in the return maps of these times. We instead observed what is best modeled as random times determined by an exponential distribution. This study was done as an undergraduate experiment and illustrates the differences between low dimensional chaotic and possibly higher dimensional chaotic systems.