Butterfly effect
The butterfly effect is an idea from chaos theory. A small change can sometimes make much bigger changes happen.[1]
Weather is hard to forecast, but that doesn't mean that when a butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo, then a tornado will occur in Tennessee. However, what seem to be tiny changes in a planet's orbit can cause big changes to the weather: see Milankovich cycle.
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[change | change source]Author Ray Bradbury wrote the short story "A Sound of Thunder" with this idea— time travelers make a very small change in the past that makes a large change in the present.[2] However, remember that time travel is impossible, or at least has never been shown to be possible.
One small incident may have a big impact on the future. There is no general theory which tells us what is going to happen.
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[change | change source]References
[change | change source]- ↑ Lorenz, Edward N. 1963. Deterministic nonperiodic flow. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 20 (2): 130–141.
- ↑ Brett M. Rogers; Benjamin Eldon Stevens, eds. (2015). Classical traditions in science fiction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-022833-0. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
