Marty Johnston

Professor

Degree

University of California, Riverside, CA
Ph.D. Physics, December 1993
M.S. Physics, December 1989

Walla Walla College, College Place, WA
B.S. Physics, June 1987

Office

OWS 160A

Phone

(651) 962-5214

mejohnston@stthomas.edu

Mail

Mail Stop OWS 153
2115 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105-1080

I am fascinated by the search for order in disorder. Is chaos just a random state or is there an underlying structure just lurking in the shadows? My research centers on the search for invariant structures in chaotic systems. The nonlinear systems that I study are governed by classical mechanics but produce very complicated behaviors. When studied in the time-domain they tend to exhibit behavior that is very difficult to characterize. Even using tools such as spectral analysis does not lead to a very clear understanding of the system dynamics. Other tools such as Poincare diagrams, Lyapunov exponents and fractal dimensions give hints to structures that are missing in the conventional view but there is along ways to go For more details on the projects, visit here.

Summer 2020 Courses

Summer 2020 Courses
Course - Section	Title	Days	Time	Location

Fall 2020 Courses

Course - Section

Title

Days

Time

Location

PHYS 331 - L01

Theoretical Mechanics

M - W - F - -

1055 - 1200

OWS 166

Days of Week:

M - W - F - -

Time of Day:

1055 - 1200

Location:

OWS 166

Course Registration Number:

46397 (View in ClassFinder)

Credit Hours:

4 Credit Hours

Instructor:

Martin E. Johnston

Careful examination of Newtonian dynamics, conservation laws, development of variational calculus, the Lagrangian formulation and Hamiltonian dynamics. Applications to particles and systems of particles, rigid bodies, and coupled systems. The course is a lecture/lab format, students registering for PHYS 331-L01 must also register for PHYS 331-L51. Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in either PHYS 215 or 225 and in MATH 200 and 210.

Schedule Details

Location	Time	Day(s)

PHYS 331 - L51

Theoretical Mechanics LAB

- T - - - - -

1330 - 1700

OWS 166

Days of Week:

- T - - - - -

Time of Day:

1330 - 1700

Location:

OWS 166

Course Registration Number:

46398 (View in ClassFinder)

Credit Hours:

0 Credit Hours

Instructor:

Martin E. Johnston

Careful examination of Newtonian dynamics, conservation laws, development of variational calculus, the Lagrangian formulation and Hamiltonian dynamics. Applications to particles and systems of particles, rigid bodies, and coupled systems. The course is a lecture/lab format, students registering for PHYS 331-L51 must also register for PHYS 331-L01. Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in either PHYS 215 or 225 and in MATH 200 and 210.

Schedule Details

Location	Time	Day(s)

J-Term 2021 Courses

J-Term 2021 Courses
Course - Section	Title	Days	Time	Location