Pewne przykłady zastosowania teorii katastrof w mechanice

The paper is aimed at introducing non-specialists into the catastrophe theory. Though the theory is a part of the qualitative analysis of differential equations, it seems to be applicable in various other fields since it allows for considering several problems from a new point of view. Initial two chapters give some simple examples of conflict situations and present their qualitative study. Chapter 3 defines the subject of the catastrophe theory. The table of possible local singularities, given by Thom, is presented. In Chapter 4 several examples of problems are analysed in terms of the theory. The problems are taken from mechanics of deformable bodies and concern mainly such phenomena like
loss of stability, bifurcation etc. The paper contains a large number of references dealing with the subject.