Continuous flow · dim 3
Van der Pol oscillator
Nonlinear relaxation oscillator. The unforced equation gives a stable limit cycle; the forced version exhibits chaos and devil's staircase frequency locking.
Equations
d²x/dt² − μ (1 − x²) dx/dt + x = A cos(ω t)At a glance
| Parameters | μ, A, ω |
|---|---|
| Chaotic for | forced regime, large μ, suitable A and ω |
| History | Van der Pol (1920s); chaos in the forced version studied since the 1970s. |
Try it
Open the interactive playground at /tools/vanderpol.