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ican Society of Mechanical Engineers Author affiliations: 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Glasgow, G12 8, United Kingdom 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, UMIST, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD, United Kingdom Abstract: This review article starts by addressing the mathematical principles of the perturbation method of multiple scales in the context of mechanical systems which are defined by weakly nonlinear ordinary differential equations. At this stage the paper investigates some different forms of typical nonlinearities which are frequently encountered in machine and structural dynamics. This leads to conclusions relating to the relevance and scope of this popular and versatile method, its strengths, its adaptability and potential for different variant forms, and also its weaknesses. Key examples from the literature are used to develop and consolidate these themes. In addition to this the paper examines the role of termordering, the integration of the socalled small (ie, perturbation) parameter within system constants, nondimensionalization and timescaling, series truncation, inclusion and exclusion of higher order nonlinearities, and typical problems in the handling of secular terms. This general discussion is then applied to models of the dynamics of space tethers given that these systems are nonlinear and necessarily highly susceptible to modelling accuracy, thus offering a rigorous and testing applications casestudy area for the multiple scales method. The paper concludes with ments on the use of variants of the multiple scales method, and also on the constraints that the method can bring to expectations of modelling accuracy. This review article contains 134 references.(135 refs) Main heading: Dynamic mechanical analysis Controlled terms: Algorithms Approximation theory Benchmarking Cognitive sy