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Cycles are series of states or conditions that repeat themselves, usually after a regular or nearly regular Period . Cyclic behaviour is one kind — the simplest, one could say — of Oscillation . The standard Mathematical Model of a cycle is the Periodic Function . Mathematicians study both periodic functions and Almost Periodic Function s.

Cycles may be due to restorative forces causing repetition as in Simple Harmonic Motion , regularity of motion such as daily, monthly, yearly, and other Astronomical cycles, or being affected by something else that has these qualities. These forces may be physical, biological, economic or social.

The study of cycles have been a recurring phenomena throughout human history. In some cases these cycles are real physical phenomena but in other cases the cycles are illusions and represent man's fondness for seeing patterns in everything.


HISTORY

Early studies of cycles are found in Vedic , Buddhist and Christian sacred books. The Vedic Timeline consists of a complex pattern of cycles with cycles ranging from 4million years to 311 trillion years. Pythagoras ' study of Music and Ptolemy 's motion of the Planet s were early scientific studies of cycles; see also Interval Cycle and Song Cycle . Early studies of cycles were generally related to astronomical, Astrological , and weather/climatic cycles. Copernicus , Tycho Brahe , Kepler , Newton and Einstein contributed to ever refined understanding of the motion of the planets.

Piccardi discovered inexplicable fluctuations in the rate of chemical reactions and Takata found that a human blood test he devised varied with time and depended on the sunspot cycle. Later Simon Shnoll and other researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences found that such cycles were simultaneously happening in the growth of single celled organisms and in radioactive decay.

General cycles research pioneers were Chizhevsky in Russia and Raymond Wheeler in the USA. Edward R Dewey , who formed the Foundation For The Study Of Cycles in 1942, stated that everything that had been studied had been found to have cycles present. This includes Cosmology , Physics , Biology , Geology , Climate , Economics , Sociology , Civilisation , and History in general. It was Dewey who formulated the concepts of common cycle periods, cycle synchrony and harmonically related cycle periods.

Through the middle part of the 20th century Abbott claimed to measure variations in the Solar Constant and links between the sunspot cycle and weather cycles on earth were vehemently denied by many scientists. With the coming of the artificial satellite age we have vastly better measures of both solar output and weather around the world and these cyclic links are now firmly established and accepted.

Edward R Dewey discovered that different disciplines often reported similar cycle periods and the phases were very similar, a principle that he called Cycle Synchrony . He also found that these commonly reported cycle periods were often related by ratios of 2 and 3 but was unable to determine why. An explanation for this has been offered by Ray Tomes in the Harmonics Theory .

The Foundation for the Study of Cycles in the US and CIFA in Europe and Russia are organisations set up to study cycles and fluctuating phenomena. An interdisciplinary Internet discussion group on cycles allows cycles researchers from different fields to exchange ideas and results.


ASTRONOMY

Although weather changes from one summer to the next and from one winter to the next, the astronomical cycles that cause seasonal changes may to a fairly good approximation undergo identical repetitions. But astronomers also concern themselves with cycles like the 11-year Sunspot Cycle , in which the length of one cycle may differ from the next by an amount that cannot be neglected even over a short run of just a few cycles.

Our understanding of weather cycles being attributable to annual and monthly astronomical motions was extended by Milutin Milankovitch who showed that Ice Age s were closely related to variations in the Earth's orbital Eccentricity , Axial Tilt and the Precession Of The Equinoxes which have periods of around 100,000 years, 40,000 years and 26,000 years respectively.

The Metonic Cycle in astronomy is a Common Multiple of the Tropical Year and the Synodic Month , and was used in several Calendar systems.

The Full Moon Cycle is an important cycle for earth, it governs the rise and fall of Tides and the spring and neep tides are strongly correlated with the phases of the moon. The Menstrual Cycle is said by many to be linked with the Full Moon Cycle .

Astronomical cycles have been linked to various biological phenomena. Lyall Watson in his contreversal 1973 book Supernature discusses many strange phemonena in nature which are apparently linked to astronomical cycles. These included 24 hour Circadian Rhythm s observed in Plant s, Animal s, Fungi and Cyanobacteria . In mammals this is driven by the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus . Luner cycles in Oyster s and Grunion , (a small fish).Lyall Watson, ''Supernature'', Corgie, 1973. ISBN 0340188332

Some theories of Stonehenge are linked to long term luner cycles an the pattern of Lunar Precession with periods of 18.6 and 56 years.Gerald S. Hawkins, ''Stonehenge Decoded'' Fontana, 1965.


SOCIAL SCIENCES

In modern times Economic (business) Cycles were studied by Joseph Kitchen , Clement Juglar , Simon Kuznets and Nikolai Kondratieff , each of whom has an economic cycle named after them.

The study of econnomic cycles has been robustly cricicised as Pseudoscience . Philip Ball in his book ''Critical Mass: how one thing leeds to another'' devotes a chapter to ''Rythems of the market place'' and examining the history of the study.
The truth is that dips and peaks in the economy resolutely refuse to recur in any predictiable manner, making attempts to construct cyclic theories of economics look increasing like Ptolemy's elaborate scheme for predicting the motions of the planets

Ball then discusses more modern theories which investigate the precence of Chaos in the buisness cycle. This work shows that economic cycles are neither completly periodic or completly random. In 1995 physicists R. Mantegna and G. Stanley analyzed over a million records of stock market indices from the previous five years, they found that the actual distribution lay between the Gaussian Random Walk s and Lévy Flight s.Philip Ball, ''Critical Mass'' Random House 2004. ISBN 00994557865. Rosario N. Mantegna , H. Eugene Stanley , ''An Introduction to Econophysics: Correlations and Complexity in Finance'', Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, 1999)

In .

In Social Movement studies there is the concept of a Protest Cycle (or a cycle of contention). Waves Of Democracy concept can also be viewed as 'cycles of democratization'.


SEE ALSO




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