Concept | The Butterfly Effect

What is the Butterfly Effect?

The butterfly effect is an exquisite representation of a concept first mentioned in the Vocation of Man in 1800. It marvels in the beauty of how events are linked, and how one small action can create a much larger reaction. The concept itself states that "small causes have larger effects." A perfect example of how one can demonstrate a small glimpse of the butterfly effect is with dice. It is virtually impossible to be able to throw dice in the exact same way twice, because the conditions of throwing the dice, for example, the velocity (which is speed with a direction) and the way the dice is held before throwing it, alter each time, even if that change is close to nothing. Therefore as I said before, it is virtually impossible to throw dice the exact same way twice.

What is the History behind the Butterfly Effect?

This is where it gets interesting, as I stated before, the first time the butterfly effect was mentioned was in the Vocation of Man in 1800 - Johann Gottlieb Fichte stated that one single grain of sand is not able to be removed from its place without thereby changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole. Through Chaos Theory and the dependence of the conditions that are met initially, was described in a particular case of the Three-body problem, by Henri Poincare in 1890.

The butterfly effect played a huge role in the weather forecasting department, as a theory was developed that something as small as a butterfly flapping its wings can alter the time, speed or duration of a change in the weather pattern, maybe even a tornado from occurring or not. Another example of this in the weather forecasting department involves Lorenz in 1961, Lorenz was running a numerical computer model to redo a weather forecast from the middle of the previous run, this was used as a shortcut, Lorenz then continued to enter in a estimated number as the initial condition, 0.506 instead of the more accurate and full value, 0.506127. The result, was unbelievable, the small change in values between the two values concluded to two completely different weather scenarios!

What is Chaos Theory and the Three-body Problem?

You might have seen that I mentioned these two things in the history of where the butterfly effect came from. And these two things are quite simple to explain so that you can grasp the concept of it - The Three-body problem is found in physics and classic mechanics, it is the problem of taking an initial set of data with specified positions, masses and velocities for three bodies for some particular point in time, and then finding out the motions of the three bodies, using Newton's Laws of Motion and universal gravitation.

Still tricky? Well let us simplify it, simply put, this means that you have three values, which are the values you have from the start and are in a specific point in time, these values have specified masses, positions and velocities (speed with a direction). Now once you have the values, you find out what the motions of the three bodies are, by using Newton's Laws of Motion and then universal gravitation. (Laws of Physics and Classic Mechanics)

Now, Chaos Theory is mathematical, it is a branch that focuses on the behavior of dynamic systems are that are very sensitive to how the initial conditions are met. The theory also proves that in chaos there are patterns, constant feedback loops, repetition, self organization and so forth and so on. And so this is how it loops in with the butterfly effect, it shows that a random event that has happened in Brazil, like a butterfly flapping its wings, can create a hurricane in Texas.

Conclusion and Farewells

I do hope that you did find this quite informative, I have put some reference links down below if you wish to read more about the butterfly effect, I know I have learnt a lot from these - the images were made specifically for this post, and I hope that this changes the way of how you look at things, I know that its changed my perception of every little action that happens! I also do hope that you now have a general idea as to what the butterfly effect entails!