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Orbits Panel

Additional control of the computation of orbits can be obtained with the Orbits panel. With the mouse in the dstool command window and using \framebox{MENU}, select the Orbits... entry from the Panels menu button. A new panel (figure [*]) will open.

The top two lines of the panel contain buttons Forwards, Backwards, Continue, and Clear All which correspond to the mouse actions within the view window already described.

Below these are several text fields which control essential parameters. Edit the Plot: value to 100 and the Step Size: to .001. Using \framebox{SELECT}, click on Forwards. 5000 points (the value in the Stop: field) will still be computed but now at time intervals of .001 with only every hundredth point plotted or stored in memory. You can monitor this by watching the Final time entry in the Selected Point panel, and noting the number of points in memory displayed to the right of the Settings button in the main command window.

Now restore the Plot: field to 1 and the Step Size: to .01. Clear the view window by clicking Clear All inside the Orbits panel. Open the abbreviated menu button to the right of Stopping Condition. Replace the Fixed Steps entry currently chosen by Event Stopping. Most of the text fields at the bottom of the Orbits panel now darken indicating that their fields are editable. Enter 0 in the lines to the right of ${\bf {x+y}}$ and ${\bf {x-y}}$ respectively.

Now click on the Forwards button once to make sure the direction is set, and then repeatedly Continue. Orbits will be computed until either x+y or x-y reaches 0 or 5000 points are computed. You'll be able to see the orbits wind around near the attractor, as you repeatedly continue them.

You can also select the Propagation... panel to control both the choice of integration algorithm and parameters for it.


next up previous contents
Next: How to Change Parameters Up: The Lorenz Equations Previous: Quitting and Interrupting   Contents
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1998-11-02