Point attractors in 2D phase space.

The butterfly effect is a phrase which encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a nonlinear dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. So this is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... In dynamical systems, an attractor is a set to which the system evolves after a long enough time. ... Phase space of a dynamical system with focal stability. ... The butterfly effect may refer to: The butterfly effect a phrase describing the operation of some chaotic dynamical systems. ... For other uses, see Chaos Theory (disambiguation). ... In mathematics, boundary conditions are imposed on the solutions of ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations, to fit the solutions to the actual problem. ... To do: 20th century mathematics chaos theory, fractals Lyapunov stability and non-linear control systems non-linear video editing See also: Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov Dynamical system External links http://www. ... The Lorenz attractor is an example of a non-linear dynamical system. ... For other uses, see Ball (disambiguation). ...

The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. Superfamilies and families Superfamily Hedyloidea: Hedylidae Superfamily Hesperioidea: Hesperiidae Superfamily Papilionoidea: Papilionidae Pieridae Nymphalidae Lycaenidae Riodinidae A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. ... Air redirects here. ... This article is about the weather phenomenon. ...

Recurrence, the approximate return of a system towards its initial conditions, together with sensitive dependence on initial conditions are the two main ingredients for chaotic motion. They have the practical consequence of making complex systems, such as the weather, difficult to predict past a certain time range (approximately a week in the case of weather). The Poincaré recurrence theorem states that a system having a finite amount of energy and confined to a finite spatial volume will, after a sufficiently long time, return to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of its initial state. ... There are many definitions of complexity, therefore many natural, artificial and abstract objects or networks can be considered to be complex systems, and their study (complexity science) is highly interdisciplinary. ... For the geological process, see Weathering or Erosion. ...

Origin of the concept and the term

The term "butterfly effect" itself is related to the work of Edward Lorenz, based in Chaos Theory and sensitive dependence on initial conditions, first described in the literature by Jacques Hadamard in 1890^[1] and popularized by Pierre Duhem's 1906 book. The idea that one butterfly could have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent events seems first to have appeared in a 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury about time travel (see Popular Media below), although Lorenz made popular the term. In 1961, Lorenz was using a numerical computer model to rerun a weather prediction, when, as a shortcut on a number in the sequence, he entered the decimal .506 instead of entering the full .506127 the computer would hold. The result was a completely different weather scenario.^[2] Lorenz published his findings in a 1963 paper for the New York Academy of Sciences noting that "One meteorologist remarked that if the theory were correct, one flap of a seagull's wings could change the course of weather forever." Later speeches and papers by Lorenz used the more poetic butterfly. According to Lorenz, upon failing to provide a title for a talk he was to present at the 139th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1972, Philip Merilees concocted Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas as a title. Edward Norton Lorenz (born May 23, 1917), a research meteorologist at MIT, observed that minute variations in the initial values of variables in his primitive computer weather model (c. ... For other uses, see Chaos Theory (disambiguation). ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (10 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) French physicist and philosopher of science. ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... New York Academy of Sciences is a society of some 20,000 scientists of all disciplines from 150 countries. ... “Seagull” redirects here. ... Superfamilies and families Superfamily Hedyloidea: Hedylidae Superfamily Hesperioidea: Hesperiidae Superfamily Papilionoidea: Papilionidae Pieridae Nymphalidae Lycaenidae Riodinidae A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. ... The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between scientists, defends scientific freedom, encourages scientific responsibility and supports scientific education for the betterment of all humanity. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ...

Illustration

The butterfly effect in the Lorenz attractor
time 0 ≤ t ≤ 30 (larger)		z coordinate (larger)
These figures show two segments of the three-dimensional evolution of two trajectories (one in blue, the other in yellow) for the same period of time in the Lorenz attractor starting at two initial points that differ only by 10-5 in the x-coordinate. Initially, the two trajectories seem coincident, as indicated by the small difference between the z coordinate of the blue and yellow trajectories, but for t > 23 the difference is as large as the value of the trajectory. The final position of the cones indicates that the two trajectories are no longer coincident at t=30.
A Java animation of the Lorenz attractor shows the continuous evolution.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1038x766, 211 KB) Summary Created by XaosBits using Mathematica and POV-Ray. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (746x760, 35 KB) Summary Created with Mathematica and Illustrator Top: the z coordinate for the Lorenz model. ... Image File history File links TwoLorenzOrbitsSmall. ... Image File history File links LorenzCoordinatesSmall. ... A plot of the trajectory Lorenz system for values ρ=28, σ = 10, β = 8/3 A trajectory of Lorenzs equations, rendered as a metal wire to show direction and three-dimensional structure The Lorenz attractor is a chaotic map, noted for its butterfly shape. ...

Mathematical definition

A dynamical system with evolution map f^t displays sensitive dependence on initial conditions if points arbitrarily close become separate with increasing t. If M is the state space for the map f^t, then f^t displays sensitive dependence to initial conditions if there is a δ>0 such that for every point x∈M and any neighborhood N containing x there exist a point y from that neighborhood N and a time τ such that the distance The Lorenz attractor is an example of a non-linear dynamical system. ... In topology and related areas of mathematics, a neighbourhood (or neighborhood) is one of the basic concepts in a topological space. ...

The definition does not require that all points from a neighborhood separate from the base point x.

Popular media

The concept of the butterfly effect is sometimes used in popular media dealing with the idea of time travel, usually inaccurately. Most time travel depictions simply fail to address butterfly effects. According to the actual theory, if history could be "changed" at all (so that one is not invoking something like the Novikov self-consistency principle which would ensure a fixed self-consistent timeline), the mere presence of the time travelers in the past would be enough to change short-term events (such as the weather) and would also have an unpredictable impact on the distant future. Therefore, no one who travels into the past could ever return to the same version of reality he or she had come from and could have therefore not been able to travel back in time in the first place, which would create a phenomenon known as time paradox. Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other meanings of Paradox, see Paradox (disambiguation). ...

Movies

In arguably the earliest illustration of the butterfly effect in a story on film, an angel in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) shows George Bailey how rewriting history so that George was never born would detrimentally affect the lives of everyone in his hometown. In a subtle butterfly effect, snow is falling in one version of reality but not the other.^[3][4] For other uses, see Its a Wonderful Life (disambiguation). ...

The 1998 British movie Sliding Doors runs two parallel stories of the same woman, Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow). In one universe, Helen manages to catch a London Underground train home on time, and in the other she misses it. This small event influenced her life dramatically. Sliding Doors is a 1998 film written and directed by former actor Peter Howitt. ... Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (born September 27, 1972)[1] is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe- and two-time Screen Actors Guild Award-winning American actress. ...

The French film Le Battement d'ailes du papillon (2000), translated as Happenstance in the English release, makes direct references to the butterfly effect in title, dialogue, and theme. Happenstance is a 2000 movie starring Audrey Tautou and Faudel. ...

In many cases, minor and seemingly inconsequential actions in the past are extrapolated over time and can have radical effects on the present time of the main characters. In the movie The Butterfly Effect (2004), Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), when reading from his adolescent journals, is able to essentially "redo" parts of his past. As he continues to do this, he realizes that even though his intentions are good, the actions he takes always have unintended consequences. Despite its title, however, this movie does not seriously explore the implications of the butterfly effect; only the lives of the principal characters seem to change from one scenario to another. The greater world around them is mostly unaffected. Furthermore, the changes made in the past of the principal character are far from minor and in that sense the title of the film is a misnomer. An element of the butterfly effect in general terms is that differences in start conditions for different scenario outcomes are virtually undetectable, and consequences are not related to cause in a directly apparent way. For other uses, see Butterfly effect (disambiguation). ... Christopher Ashton Kutcher (born February 7, 1978) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Michael Kelso in the television series That 70s Show. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

On the other hand, in the movie "Run Lola Run" (Lola rennt in German-1998), the butterfly effect is represented more clearly. There, minor and almost sub-conscious actions in everyday life can be seen to have gross and wide spread effects upon the future. For example, the fact that Lola bumps into someone instead of passing by may lead to a painful death after suffering paralysis. As such, seemingly inconsequential actions can be seen to have drastic long-term results. The second episode in the "Back to the Future" trilogy also vividly illustrates the cascading and broad effects of what seemed a minor change in the course of events: because the loathsome Biff Tannen accidentally gets his hands on a record book from 2015, he is able to grow rich and corrupt "Marty Mcfly"'s home town. When McFly (Michael J. Fox) returns to 1985, he finds it utterly degraded from what had used to be. Run Lola Run (original German title Lola rennt, which translates to Lola Runs) is a 1998 film by German screenwriter and director Tom Tykwer, starring Franka Potente as Lola. ... This article is about the first film in the Back to the Future trilogy. ... Martin Seamus Marty McFly is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy, played by actor Michael J. Fox in the three films and voiced by David Kaufman in the animated series. ... For other persons named Michael Fox, see Michael Fox (disambiguation). ...

In the 2000 movie Frequency, a son, John Sullivan (James Caviezel), is presented with an opportunity to prevent the death of his father, Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid), through a miracle of nature in which they were both able to communicate across time 30 years using the same am radio, transmitting the signal via a freak occurrence of the Northern Lights. This one action, however, had several undesirable consequences, including the murder of his mother by a vicious killer known as the Nightingale who was supposed to have never been caught. In the original timeline, when the killer is lying unconscious in the hospital, he dies from a reaction of two medicines that were administered intravenously into his system. This was due to an oversight on his medical chart, in which the attending male nurse overlooked the fact that it stated that the patient had received a certain medication which could not be mixed with the other. In the alternate timeline, Frank visits his wife, a nurse, at the hospital immediately after surviving the fire in which he was supposed to die. She alters her routine slightly to see him, and of all things she then sees the wrong medication being administered to the killer. She prevents this from happening, and so the killer survives to murder not only her, but several more people; all nurses. Also, this film illustrates a theoretical side effect of the butterfly effect, where John is able to remember the original future time, as well as other alternate futures that were created each time his father changed something in the past. Frequency is a 2000 film, which contains elements of the time travel, thriller and alternate history film genres. ... James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. ... Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor. ... This article is about the concept of time. ... Citizens band radio (CB) is, in the United States, a system of short distance radio communication between individuals on a selection of 40 channels within the single 27 MHz (11 meter) band. ... The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, shines above Bear Lake Aurora Borealis as seen over Canada at 11,000m (36,000 feet) Red and green Aurora in Fairbanks, Alaska Aurora Borealis redirects here. ... For other uses, see Timeline (disambiguation). ... Intravenous therapy or IV therapy is the giving of liquid substances directly into a vein. ... In science fiction stories involving time travel, an alternate future or alternative future is a possible future which never comes to pass, typically because someone travels back into the past and alters it so that the events of the alternate future cannot occur. ...

In the 1990 movie "Havana" with Robert Redford and Lena Olin, Redford even makes a direct reference to: "And a butterfly can flutter its wings over a flower in China and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. I believe it. They can even calculate the odds. It just isn't likely and it takes so long." He's referring to the probability of the two of their characters ever getting together. Redford's character was a gambler in late 50's Cuba and Olin was spotted earlier in the movie looking at books on the Theory of Numbers and Probability in the apartment of Redford's character.

Literature and print

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In the 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury, "A Sound of Thunder", the killing of a butterfly during the time of dinosaurs causes the future to change in subtle but meaningful ways: e.g., the spelling of English and the outcome of a political election.^[5]

• The butterfly effect was invoked by fictional chaotician Ian Malcolm in both the novel Jurassic Park and subsequent film adaptation. He used it to explain the inherent instability of (among other things) an amusement park with dinosaurs as the attraction.

• In Terry Pratchett's "Men at Arms," Zorgo the Retrophrenologist approves of hunting butterflies with crossbows, claiming that he "suppose(s) it stops them creating all these damn thunderstorms."

Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... “A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. ... For other uses, see Chaos Theory (disambiguation). ... For the feature film based on this book, see Jurassic Park (film). ... Terence David John Pratchett, OBE (born 28 April 1948) is a British fantasy and science fiction author, best known for his Discworld series. ... For the novel by Evelyn Waugh, see Sword of Honour. ...

Interactive media

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The webcomic Kevin and Kell refers to Bradbury in the March 10, 1998 strip, which has Coney eating a butterfly while the family is in the Stone Age. A caption reads "When they return to 1998, they'll discover that a writer named Ray Bradbury never existed".

• In the videogame Second Sight, main character John Vattic is able to change the present by having flashbacks to six months earlier, where he does things differently, affecting the future; only he remembers the alternate futures.

Webcomics, also known as online comics and internet comics, are comics that are available to read on the Internet. ... This article or section contains a plot summary that is overly long. ... Stone Age fishing hook. ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... Second Sight is a video game developed by Free Radical Design and published by Codemasters for GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. ...

Television

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

In The Simpsons Halloween episode, "Time and Punishment", Homer repeatedly travels back to the time of dinosaurs with a time machine (à la Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder). Each time there, Homer's actions (involving intentional and unintentional violence) drastically alter the current universe. Some of the changes include: A world dictator, a universe where his family is rich and classy and it rains donuts, and a seemingly normal universe, with the exception of everyone having long reptilian tongues. Simpsons redirects here. ... Treehouse of Horror V is the sixth episode of The Simpsons sixth season, which originally aired October 30, 1994. ... “A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. ...

In the Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires", Peter, with the help of Death, repeatedly travels back to the 80's to live up his teenage years and cancel a date with Lois. This leads to her marrying Quagmire and Peter marrying Molly Ringwald among other things, causing two drastic changes of the present (Chevy Chase is host of The Tonight Show, and Al Gore is president of the United States) and finally when things seem normal again it turns out Roger from American Dad! is living with them. Family Guy is an Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about a dysfunctional family in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. ... Meet the Quagmires is the eighteenth and final episode of the fifth season of the FOX animated series Family Guy. ... Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. ... For other uses, see Chevy Chase (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the former Vice President of the United States. ... American Dad! is a satirical American animated series produced by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions for 20th Century Fox Television. ...

In a 2004 television episode of comedy sitcom Scrubs called "My Butterfly", the episode is shown in two parts: The first in which a butterfly lands on a woman sitting in the hospital's waiting room, and the second where time is rewound and the butterfly instead lands on the man next to her. Both halves of the episode show the noticeably (albeit sensationally) different outcomes that stem directly from the original choice of landing locations of this butterfly^[6]. Scrubs is an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning American situation comedy/comedy-drama that premiered on October 2, 2001 on NBC. It was created by Bill Lawrence and is produced by Touchstone Television. ... My Butterfly is the 62nd episode of the American sitcom Scrubs. ...

In a first-season episode of the stop-motion animation show Robot Chicken titled "Operation: Rich in Spirit" there is a sketch where a young boy tries to explain the butterfly effect to a young girl. When the young girl squishes the butterfly, it causes earthquakes in Japan. A Japanese woman retaliates, stepping on a butterfly, which causes a volcano to erupt behind the children. The boy retaliates as well, ripping a butterfly in half, which causes Godzilla to terrorize Japan. Robot Chicken is an Emmy award-winning American stop motion animated television series produced by Stoopid Monkey, ShadowMachine Films, Williams Street, and Sony Pictures Digital, currently airing in the US as a part of Cartoon Networks Adult Swim line-up, in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of...

In a second season episode of CSI titled "Chaos Theory", the entire CSI team investigates a disappearance of a young woman at a local university. Forensics leads them to possible suspects, and possible suspects all have probable motives, but nothing seems to pan out. This leads the team to discuss the "Chaos Theory": when combined, many seemingly innocuous events may have a deadly outcome, and closure is not always within reach. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a popular Alliance Atlantis/CBS police procedural television series, running since October 2000, about a team of forensic scientists. ... Chaos Theory is the second episode in the second season of the popular television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which is set in Las Vegas, Nevada. ...

The third season premiere of Heroes is entitled "The Butterfly Effect." Heroes is an American science fiction serial drama television series created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. ...

A Malcolm in the Middle episode shows Hal and Lois arguing about which one of them will take Malcolm and Reese to bowling and which one will stay at home with Dewey. After that, the episode will show two timelines: one where Lois takes them and another one where Hal takes them. An event from the timeline where Lois goes to the bowling is shown as a flashback in a later episode, implying that timeline to be the one in canon. Malcolm in the Middle is a seven-time Emmy-winning,[1] one-time Grammy-winning[1] and seven-time Golden Globe-nominated[1] American sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. ... Hal Wilkerson is a fictional character from Malcolm in the Middle. ... Lois Wilkerson is a fictional character from Malcolm in the Middle. ... Malcolm Wilkerson is the main character and protagonist in Malcolm in the Middle. ... Reese Wilkerson is a fictional character from Malcolm in the Middle. ... the sport of cricket|Bowling (cricket)}} For other uses, see Bowling (disambiguation). ... Dewey Wilkerson is a fictional character from Malcolm in the Middle. ... In literature, film, television and other media, a flashback (also called analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. ...

References

See also

• Causality
• Chain reaction
• Determinism
• Domino effect
• Dynamical systems
• Fractal
• Rube Goldberg machine

Causality or causation denotes the relationship between one event (called cause) and another event (called effect) which is the consequence (result) of the first. ... A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions. ... This article is about the general notion of determinism in philosophy. ... The domino effect refers to a small change which will cause a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence, by analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end. ... In engineering and mathematics, a dynamical system is a deterministic process in which a functions value changes over time according to a rule that is defined in terms of the functions current value. ... The boundary of the Mandelbrot set is a famous example of a fractal. ... A Rube Goldberg machine performs a simple task in a complex way. ...

External links

• Butterfly Effect (Mathematical Recreations)
• From butterfly wings to single e-mail (Cornell University)
• New England Complex Systems Institute - Concepts: Butterfly Effect
• The Chaos Hypertextbook. An introductory primer on chaos and fractals.
• Eric W. Weisstein, Butterfly Effect at MathWorld.
• Glass Bead Game using the Butterfly Effect