Can someone explain the Butterfly Effect to me?
The idea is that small changes in initial conditions can make drastic changes in the outcome in chaotic systems. Also known as chaos theory. If you take a course in differential equations in college, you’ll probably explore this idea. It’s often called the Butterfly Effect because someone once explained it by saying that a butterfly flapping it’s wings somewhere, making small changes in wind patterns, could change the course of a hurricane by the time these changes propogated to the other side of the world. It certainly doesn’t mean butterflies cause hurricanes. It’s just an example of small changes in initial conditions in a chaotic system – weather is a great example of a chaotic system.
