THE FERMI-PASTA-ULAM PROBLEM - PARADOX TURNS DISCOVERY

This pedagogical review is written as a personal retrospective which seeks to place the celebrated Fermi, Pasta, and Ulam paradox into historical perspective. After stating the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam results, we treat the questions it raises as a pedagogical "skeleton" upon which to drape (and motivate) the evolving story of nonlinear dynamics/chaos. This review is thus but another retelling of that story by one intimately involved in its unfolding. This is done without apology for two reasons, First, if my colleagues have taught me anything, it is that an audience of experts will seldom pay greater attention than when, with some modicum of grace and polish, they are told things they know perfectly well already. Second, if generations of students have taught me anything, it is that few things fascinate them more than a scientific mystery - and the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam paradox is a cracker-jack mystery. And so readers, especially graduate students curious about nonlinear dynamics/chaos, are now invited to sit back. loosen their belts (and minds). and prepare for fact that sometimes reads like fantasy.