THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
On a winter day in 1961, the meteorologist, Edward Lorenz, was using computer modeling to explore the science of weather forecasting. Lorenz would boil weather down to the barest skeleton, then feed those initial conditions into his computer in numerical formulas and watch the resulting patterns of future weather created on his printout in the form of wavy lines. It was a fascinating exercise which promised to contribute much to long-range weather prediction. Wanting to examine one sequence at greater length, Lorenz decided to take a shortcut by starting midway through the computer run. To give the machine its initial conditions, he simply typed the numbers directly from the earlier printout. Then he walked down the hall to get away from the noise and drink a cup of coffee. An hour later, when he returned, he saw something entirely unexpected — something that planted the seed for a new science. To quote from James Gleick in his book, Chaos: Making a…
To view this resource, log in or sign up for a subscription plan
