IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v13y2025i7p1126-d1623525.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is π a Chaos Generator?

Author

Listed:
  • Natalia Petrovskaya

    (School of Mathematics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK)

Abstract

We consider a circular motion problem related to blind search in confined space. A particle moves in a unit circle in discrete time to find the escape channel and leave the circle through it. We first explain how the exit time depends on the initial position of the particle when the channel width is fixed. We then investigate how narrowing the channel moves the system from discrete changes in the exit time to the ultimate ‘countable chaos’ state that arises in the problem when the channel width becomes infinitely small. It will be shown in the paper that inherent randomness exists in the problem due to the nature of circular motion as the number π acts as a random number generator in the system. Randomness of the decimal digits of π results in sensitive dependence on initial conditions in the system with an infinitely narrow channel, and we argue that even a simple linear dynamical system can exhibit features of chaotic behaviour, provided that the system has inherent noise.

Suggested Citation

  • Natalia Petrovskaya, 2025. "Is π a Chaos Generator?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-25, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:13:y:2025:i:7:p:1126-:d:1623525
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/13/7/1126/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/13/7/1126/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:13:y:2025:i:7:p:1126-:d:1623525. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.