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attractor

 [uh-trak-ter]  

at·trac·tor

   [uh-trak-ter]
noun
1.
a person or thing that attracts.
2.
Physics. a state or behavior toward which a dynamic system tends to evolve, represented as a point or orbit in the system's phase space.
Origin:
1645–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Attractor is always a great word to know.
So is inertia. Does it mean:
the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force
a particle having the same mass and spin as an electron but having a positive charge equal in magnitude to that of the electron's negative charge
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Collins
World English Dictionary
attract (əˈtrækt)
 
—vb
1.  to draw (notice, a crowd of observers, etc) to oneself by conspicuous behaviour or appearance (esp in the phrase attract attention)
2.  (also intr) to exert a force on (a body) that tends to cause an approach or oppose a separation: the gravitational pull of the earth attracts objects to it
3.  to possess some property that pulls or draws (something) towards itself: jam attracts wasps
4.  (also intr) to exert a pleasing, alluring, or fascinating influence (upon); be attractive (to)
 
[C15: from Latin attrahere to draw towards, from trahere to pull]
 
at'tractable
 
—adj
 
at'tractor
 
—n
 
at'tracter
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
attractor   (ə-trāk'tər)  Pronunciation Key 
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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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