ABSTRACT
In physics, one of the most common examples of a nonlinear system is an oscillator undergoing large amplitude oscillations. However, nonlinear systems occur in other sciences as well. Examples of nonlinear systems in other fields include predator-prey models, population dynamics, disease propagation, arms-race models, economic models, and the list goes on. To develop an understanding of one of the primary tools for nonlinear systems, phase space diagrams, the chapter explains a familiar system, the damped harmonic oscillator. In mechanical systems, phase space diagrams plot the momentum versus the position of a given system. It is possible to create a stream plot in Python using the command streamplot found in the matplotlib library. The code for a stream plot is shown in Algorithm 16. There is an exciting world out there where physics intersects the biological and social sciences, and nonlinear systems often take center stage in those arenas.
