In this Lab we will extend our understanding of systems to problems
where there are two interacting variables. Examples include
predator-prey problems, two-species competition problems, epidemic
models, non-linear oscillators, lasers and love affairs! By adding one more degree
of freedom we can (sometimes) get a lot more
behavior
. Nevertheless, the tools we developed for understanding
1-D systems will help us a long way in understanding 2-D systems. Most
important, by the time we are done you will understand the importance
and beauty of the Phase Plane and never want to plot anything
against time again.... Again, the goal is to develop global
understanding of the behavior of your model and when you are in 2-D the
most important trick to remember is to plot your variables
against each other.