Do you belive the Butterfly effect?

[Homer55]

The Theory that if a butterfly flaps its wings in the uk it can cause it to snow in Japan, do you belive it?

Also know as part of the Chaos Theory.

[PinkFizz]

how is that possible??

[tinkertontom]

what a load of c**p

[jiggy-gb]

I wish it would happen in reverse! Come on you Japanese butterflies, flap damn you!

[Supernick]

Here's a science lesson from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

[Homer55]

I didnt mean that particular part of it, that was an example.

The theory goes, that no matter how small a change is made, the consequences can be dramatic, I havent explained it very well, but if anyone knows what im on about please feel free to elaborate,

[spk]

I believe in the theory, but not quite to that extent. I do agree that every action has a reaction but not to that extreme really

[Homer55]

Thanks supernick

[kazminx]

sh1te!!!

[Champagne]

I definitely believe in the chaos theory; say, for example those 2p slot games that you get at arcades - you can never guess their trajectory each time. If you were to travel back in time and change one small detail, would this then change the future? Of course it would. And if you were to travel back in time and change nothing the course of the future would still change due to you travelling back in time!!

So I guess I'm saying that I believe in both the chaos theory and the butterfly effect.

I liked your link Supernick. If you scroll down to the section titled 'Popular Media' then it shows how the butterfly effect has been represented in film & tv. Usually inaccurately!

[Loosehead]

It's chaos theory and can be demonstrated in any number of ways. The famous butterflys wing statement refers to the fact that in complex systems, no matter how accurate you try and replicate a sequence of events it just cannot be done accurately, small changes always effect the outcome. A good example is the simple pinball type machines wher you drop a ball bearing down a slot and it bounces between nails and eventually rests at the bottom. Now you can not get the ball to do the same thing twice regardless of how accurately you release it in space and speed, something tiny later has a much larger effect. Hence the butterfly causing a hurricane.

So Tinkertontw&t, we know all about chaos theory do we? try not to comment if you are clueless

[Backdrifter]

The butterfly effect isn't supposed to be an actual thing, it's just an illustration of an aspect of chaos theory called "sensitive dependence on initial conditions", which means that a set of conditions can zoom off in any number of different directions, very quickly, with just a slight impetus. It's the principle underlying weather forecasting (indeed much of our initial understanding of chaos theory came from studying the weather) and is the reason why weather forecasting is very difficult and can't be done more than 2 or 3 days ahead. It's also the reason why the actual weather conditions turn out to be different from the forecasting - about which we always moan and say "They got it wrong again!" but it's actually not their fault.

[turboped]

Yes. Do I get three stars?

[tinkertontom]

wooooooooooh, so sorry loosehead that was just my opinion, of coarse every action has an effect on the whole universe but to me that is to much for my obviously inferior brain to contemplate