The Butterfly Effect Related to the Chaos Theory

Butterflies by LushBella

There was a question posted recently on SlowTravel by my friend Jane. She asked the following:

"Can someone help me with this? I was telling Casey this morning about the butterfly effect (related to the chaos theory.) I have tried to find the little blurb that explains the effect of the flap of wings clear through to the final result but just can't find it. I have googled and googled and can't think of any other combination of words to use. Does anyone have it or will this be a challenge to some of you?"

Our friend Kim from New Jersey responded with this, "Jane are you referring to the butterfly effect as in the time travel principle or that a butterfly batting his wings off the coast of Africa can cause a hurricane in Florida? They're both similar in application.If it's the former, you may want to read Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder which tells the story of some time travelers who screw things up. "

Jane said, "Kim, I'm talking about the batting wings in Africa one. Do you know where I can find it?"

Doru from Toronto entered into the conversation with, "Wikipedia has a pretty good and concise explanation."

Jane replied, "Thanks Friend Doru but that isn't what I'm looking for. Wikipedia gives an explanation of the scientific phenomenon. In the past I have heard an interesting continuum of events beginning with the wing movement through a series of events that ultimately end in a cataclysmic event."

Now this caught my eye. I don't know anything about "The Butterfly Effect" but when I heard Chaos Theory it sounded like Physics so I left Siberia (that's the name of my computer room where I hide myself away quite alot -more on Siberia in another post) and went into the living room to talk to Mike. I asked him if he knew anything about what Jane had asked. He explained it to me. I said,"can you just email that to me". He did and this is what he wrote:

"In an attempt to predict weather, scientists used computers to simulate the hydrodynamics that governs the atmosphere. Basically you start with the initial state of the atmosphere, and use the computer to predict the future state, step by step. The models work good for short term predictions, but not for long term. That is why weather forecasts never go more than a couple of weeks. Furthermore, small changes in the inital state were found to cause huge differences in the long term. These small changes may have been caused by the flap of a Seagull's wings ( as it was originally put ). For more poetic impact, it was changed to the flutter of a butterflies wings. So the flutter of a butterflies wings may in the distant future cause a devastating hurricane, or a perfect summer day, depending on the details of the flutter."

Now I don't think this is quite the answer Jane was seeking as she states she is looking for "a continuum of events beginning with the wing movement through a series of events that ultimately end in a cataclysmic event" , however, for me through this small exchange I learned something new today and thought I'd share it with anyone out there who, like me, may not have heard of this effect. And if, by chance one of you knows the answers which would more adequately answer Janes query, would you tell me so I can tell Jane?