There is an explosion of interest in dynamical systems in the mathematical community as well as in many areas of science. The results have been truly exciting: systems which once seemed completely intractable from an analytic point of view can now be understood in a geometric or qualitative sense rather easily.

Scientists and engineers realize the power and the beauty of the geometric and qualitative techniques. These techniques apply to a number of important nonlinear problems ranging from physics and chemistry to ecology and economics.

Computer graphics have allowed us to view the dynamical behavior geometrically. The appearance of incredibly beautiful and intricate objects such as the Mandelbrot set, the Julia set, and other fractals have really piqued interest in the field.

This is text is aimed primarily at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Throughout, the author emphasizes the mathematical aspects of the theory of discrete dynamical systems, not the many and diverse applications of this theory.

The field of dynamical systems and especially the study of chaotic systems has been hailed as one of the important breakthroughs in science in the past century and its importance continues to expand. There is no question that the field is becoming more and more important in a variety of scientific disciplines.