Quick to listen, Slow to speak

[optimist]

Is that butterfly effect written about somewhere? What is that?

The butterfly effect is a mathematical theory that tries to explain the essence of chaos. Technically it is called "sensitive dependence on initial conditions."

It tries to explain the impact of small inputs in complex systems. The theory proposes that a tiny difference in the initial conditions in a mathematical equation becomes amplified by the evolution of the equation itself in time, until the two trajectories evolve quite separately. The amplification is exponential, the difference grows very rapidly and after a surprisingly short time the two solutions behave quite differently.

The initial theory was proposed by Edward Lorenz in 1963, though Henri Poincaré, a 19th century mathematician, laid down some of the initial equations. To illustrate his theory, Lorenz theorized "the flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, the atmosphere actually diverges from what it otherwise would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado develops that devastates the coast of Indonesia. Or perhaps, because of the butterfly's wing, the tornado never happens."

BTW, his initial example in the 1963 paper was a seagull. The more poetic butterfly appeared in his 1972 presentation to the AAAS.

It gets frequently confused with the "domino effect", but the comparison is misleading. In both there is dependence on the initial sensitivity, but whereas a simple linear row of dominoes would cause one event to initiate another similar one, the butterfly effect amplifies the condition upon each iteration and makes the final outcome unpredictable.

Of course all this is probably way more than you wanted to know about chaos theory...

But, girlfriend, cheer up: IT IS THE THIRD WEEK IN MARCH: WE FINALLY CAN GET OUT AND PLANT!!!!!!!!!