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Chaos theory

Is it possible for the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Brazil to cause a tornado in Texas?

This inquiry was raised during a presentation on Chaos Theory by meteorologist


Edward Lorenz at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in
1972. Chaos Theory is a complex method of studying the behavior of dynamic
systems that cannot be explained or predicted by single data relationships, but
rather by whole, continuous data relationships. Although this theory may never
be proven, if it were, it could aid in predicting the future, which would require a
time machine or knowledge of every atom's position and the nature of every
force acting on it, as suggested by French Scholar Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1814.

Geometrically, chaos is not simply disorder, but rather the exploration of the
transitions between order and disorder, which can often occur in surprising ways,
we can never know all the initial conditions of a complex system with perfect
detail, rendering any prediction useless due to the dramatic amplification of even
slight measurement errors.

An animation of a double-rod pendulum at an intermediate energy showing chaotic behavior. Starting the
pendulum from a slightly different initial condition would result in a vastly different trajectory. The double-rod
pendulum is one of the simplest dynamical systems with chaotic solutions.
The theory suggests that even the smallest action can alter the course of the
entire world. For instance, by reading this blog post, you may have already
impacted not only your own life but also the lives of others. You may have
avoided an accident or found your soulmate just by being a few minutes late.

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are
certain, they do not refer to reality.”
-Albert Einstein

Recourses:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

https://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-is-chaos-theory/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wps2vtzi1TU

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