Attractor

a person or thing that .
physics. a state or behavior toward which a dynamic system tends to evolve, represented as a point or orbit in the system’s phase sp-ce.
historical examples

“there, we can see what they’re doing now,” and duquesne anch-r-d the vessel with an attractor.
skylark three edward elmer smith

shall one of us get in the airlock, or shall we bring it in with an attractor?
skylark three edward elmer smith

as an attractor of negative thought he is a glittering success.
nuggets of the new thought william walker atkinson,

as the skylark leaped away, seaton focussed an attractor upon the one who had apparently signaled the attack.
skylark three edward elmer smith

rapidly, but with unerring precision, the two ships were brought into place and held together by the attractor.
the skylark of sp-ce edward elmer smith and lee hawkins garby

the skylark was still in place, held immovable by the attractor, but what a sight she was!
the skylark of sp-ce edward elmer smith and lee hawkins garby

as the animal showed no sign of leaving its retreat, seaton pulled it out with the attractor and it broke for the surface.
the skylark of sp-ce edward elmer smith and lee hawkins garby

pliny in his origin of gl-ss will have it that a loadstone is an attractor of gl-ss, as well as of iron.
on the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth william gilbert of colchester

attractor
(ə-trāk’tər)
a set of states of a dynamic physical system toward which that system tends to evolve, regardless of the starting conditions of the system. ◇ a point attractor is an attractor consisting of a single state. for example, a marble rolling in a smooth, rounded bowl will always come to rest at the lowest point, in the bottom center of the bowl; the final state of position and motionlessness is a point attractor. ◇ a periodic attractor is an attractor consisting of a finite or infinite set of states, where the evolution of the system results in moving cyclically through each state. the ideal orbit of a planet around a star is a periodic attractor, as are periodic oscillations. a periodic attractor is also called a limit-cycle. ◇ a strange attractor is an attractor for which the evolution through the set of possible physical states is nonperiodic (chaotic), resulting in an evolution through a set of states defining a fractal set. most real physical systems (including the actual orbits of planets) involve strange attractors.