Catastrophe Theory

Singularity theory is growing very fast and many new results have been discovered since the Russian edition appeared: for instance the relation of the icosahedron to the problem of by­ passing a generic obstacle. The reader can find more details about this in the articles "Singularities of ray systems" and "Singularities in the calculus of variations" listed in the bi­ bliography of the present edition. Moscow, September 1983 v. I. Arnold Preface to the Russian Edition "Experts discuss forecas