‘Lorenz attractor’ from an electrical circuit with uncoupled continuous piecewise‐linear resistor

Abstract We present a simple piecewise‐linear circuit which exhibits a chaotic attractor similar to that observed from the well‐known Lorenz equation. Whereas the non‐linearities in the Lorenz equation consists of two product terms between two state variables, the non‐linearities in our circuit consists of two ‘ uncoupled ’ 2‐terminal continuous non‐linear resistors, each characterized by a 2‐segment v‐i characteristic. Both experiments and computer simulations of this circuit confirm a Lorenz‐like strange attractor. the nature of the trajectories associated with this attractor is analysed and explained with the help of the circuit's piecewise‐linear‐geometry.