| Edward Lorenzn the father of "chaos theory", died today. RIP
Posted: 4/17/2008 4:16:53 PM | Lorenzn explained how something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wings could lead to a big change elsewhere in the world, like a tornado.
I think that this guy has had a huge impact on science and philosophy, and weather prediction study. | |
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| Edward Lorenzn the father of chaos theory, died today. RIP
Posted: 4/17/2008 10:35:08 PM | The flutter of a butterfly's wings can not cause a tornado. The difference in scale is too many magnitudes of energy apart.
The concept involved is one of fractal dimensions:
"Big whorls have little whorls,
That feed on their velocity;
And little whorls have lesser whorls,
And so on to viscosity."
The idea that a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado is a misapplication of a model of turbulence which describes such phenomena as collections of ever smaller eddies. A big tornado can be described as a collection of many, many smaller swirls of air; but it is not CAUSED by one such minute swirl. | |
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| Edward Lorenzn the father of chaos theory, died today. RIP
Posted: 4/18/2008 1:28:24 PM | it is a sad day. chaos theory has been described as the third most revolutionary scientific idea of the 20th century following relativity and quantum theory. personally i would add the theory of the suddenly appearing tea spoon at the bottom of the washing up bowl when you think you have finished (i am a pauper and don't have a dish washer).
i think you are taking this a bit too literally tcj | |
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