Remark on ‘‘Some simple chaotic flows’’

Sprott [Phys. Rev. E 50, 647 (1994)] developed a computerized search method and applied it to generate millions of sets of coupled chaotic ordinary differential equations. Each of the sets contained three coupled quadratic equations. Of these, the simplest, Sprott's case A, is the set of equations that Posch, Hoover, and Vesely [Phys. Rev. A 33, 4253 (1986)] used to describe a single one-dimensional Nos\'e-Hoover oscillator. In this sense, the Nos\'e-Hoover oscillator system is the simplest mechanical system exhibiting chaos.