Weather Strange Attractor Strange chaotic dance. Visitors set the pendulum in motion and yet it does not behave like a simple pendulum because it is tipped with a strong magnet, and on the table beneath the pendulum are three strong magnets oriented to repel the magnetic pendulum.
Visitors move the three magnets about on the table to produce different chaotic paths.
They also choose the starting position and speed of the pendulum. Even if the visitor tries to recreate the same exact conditions of pendulum motion two times in a row, the actual motion of the pendulum will become very different within a few seconds. The sensitive dependence of motion on initial conditions is a property of chaotic systems. The name strange attractor was given to this exhibit because for some arrangements of the three table magnets, the pendulum will come to rest at different locations depending on where and how the pendulum is started. This behavior is similar to that of mathematical strange attractors.