Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect

Historical Context

• Year: 1905
• Location: Berne, Switzerland
• Scenario: Clock tower is 2 min late
• Impact: Albert Einstein is hit by a car and dies
• Consequence: Major scientific advancements (GPS, TV screens, semiconductors, computers) never happen
• Concept illustrated: Butterfly Effect

Classical Physics

• Laws by Isaac Newton
• Predictive nature: Knowing current state predicts future behavior

Emergence of Chaos Theory

• Challenges deterministic view of classical physics
• Not all phenomena are predictable by Newtonian laws

Edward Lorenz and Weather Prediction

• Year: 1961
• Meteorologist: Edward Lorenz
• Task: Mathematical model to forecast the weather
• Key Elements: Temperature, humidity, pressure, wind direction
• Incident: Tiny data alteration (three-tenths of a number) caused drastically different outcomes
• Deduction: Small differences can create monumental changes over time
• Analogy: Butterfly flapping wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas

Scientific Implications

• No exact position/speed measurements for every atom
• Difficulty in long-term predictions
• Chaos != Disorder: Systems still follow a cause-effect trajectory
• Lorenz's Model: Produced pattern resembling butterfly wings

Practical Applications

• Stock market: Slight fluctuations can cause crises
• Medical field: Understanding cardiac arrhythmia
• Social behavior: Analyzing social phenomena like trolling on social media
• General: Introduces uncertainty, highlights limits of our knowledge

Conclusion

• Laws of cause and effect still apply
• Chaos theory emphasizes probabilities over absolute predictions
• Acknowledges limits of human understanding in predicting future events