Nonlinear Dynamics II: Continuum Systems
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this course on the dynamics of continuous media, covering topics such as elasticity, fluid dynamics, solitons, and pattern formation through worked physical examples drawn from engineering and earth science. Lectures build mathematical modeling skills alongside the physics, showing how partial differential equations describe waves, instabilities, and self-organizing structures in real systems. Materials include lecture notes, problem sets, and readings from MIT's Department of Mathematics in collaboration with Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. The course assumes a background in nonlinear dynamics and is meant for advanced undergraduates or graduate students. As with all MIT OCW offerings, all course materials are free to access, with no certificate involved. It functions as a sequel to an introductory nonlinear dynamics course, extending the same qualitative and quantitative tools from discrete systems to continuous ones.