TOPICS
Search

Butterfly Effect


Due to nonlinearities in weather processes, a butterfly flapping its wings in Tahiti can, in theory, produce a tornado in Kansas. This strong dependence of outcomes on very slightly differing initial conditions is a hallmark of the mathematical behavior known as chaos.


See also

Butterfly Catastrophe, Butterfly Curve, Butterfly Function, Butterfly Graph, Butterfly Lemma, Butterfly Polyiamond, Butterfly Theorem, Chaos, Lorenz Attractor

Explore with Wolfram|Alpha

References

Gleick, J. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin Books, 1988.

Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha

Butterfly Effect

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Butterfly Effect." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/ButterflyEffect.html

Subject classifications