Event: Clock tower is 2 minutes late, causing Albert Einstein to wake up late and subsequently die in a car accident.
Impact: Einstein's death means his revolutionary works in physics are never published, leading to a world without modern technological innovations like GPS, TV screens, and computers.
Concept: Example of the Butterfly Effect, part of Chaos Theory.
Classical Physics
Laws of Isaac Newton: Predicted the behavior of objects based on current states.
Determinism: The future behavior of an object is predictable.
Chaos Theory
Challenge to Determinism: Not everything is predictable; small changes can lead to large, unpredictable results.
Historical Context: Began with mathematicians in the 1800s questioning Newtonian laws.
Edward Lorenz and Weather Prediction
Meteorologist: Developed Chaos Theory into a visible concept.
Experiment: 1961, working on a mathematical weather model.
Data: Entered temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind direction into a computer.
Result: Small data entry error (three-tenths difference) caused drastically different weather predictions.
Analogy: Tiny differences can lead to monumental changes, like a butterfly’s flapping causing a tornado.
Key Concepts and Implications
Inexact Measurements: Impossible to determine exact positions of every atom, making precise predictions difficult.
Chaos vs. Disorder: Chaos leads to unpredictability, but the universe is not random; it follows cause and effect.
Attractors: Systems follow a trajectory towards certain points, creating patterns (e.g., butterfly-shaped graphs).
Practical Applications
Stock Market: Small fluctuations can cause crises; predictions are based on probabilities, not certainties.
Human Body: Helps understand cardiac arrhythmia’s chaotic behavior.
Social Phenomena: Butterfly effect can analyze events like social media trolling triggered by a single comment.
Conclusion
Laws of Cause and Effect: Still govern the universe; sun rises, planes fly.
Element of Uncertainty: Chaos theory reveals the limits of our knowledge and the inherent unpredictability in the universe.