EJMT Abstract

The synchronization between two dynamical systems is one of the most appealing phenomena occuring in Nature. Already observed by Huygens in the case of two pendula, it is a current area of research in the case of chaotic systems, with numerous applications in Physics, Biology or Engineering. We present an elementary but detailed exploration of the theory behind this phenomenon, including some graphical animations, with the aid of the free CAS Maxima, but the code can be easily ported to other CASs. The examples used are the Lorentz attractor and a pair of coupled pendula because these are well-known models of dynamical systems, but the procedures are applicable to any system described by a system of first-order differential equations.