Butterfly Effect

“The flutter of a butterfly’s wings can be felt on the other side of the world..”

Edward Lorenz is known for his discovery of the butterfly effect. The way in which small changes in initial conditions can lead to very different results in complex systems, such as weather patterns.

Small variations in the initial conditions of the model, such as the initial position of the air molecules, lead to drastically different climate results. The behavior when time passes is the same (attractors), giving rise to iconic representations such as the butterfly effect.