Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - March 2014 | Page 52

Butterfly
the

By Ethan Ellsmere

effect

The term Bu erfly Effect is more than the
tle of an older Ashton Kutcher movie.
However that movie (like this ar cle) is
about the meaning behind the
terminology and why that knowledge is
so important to all of us. The term
bu erfly effect comes from what is
called Chaos Theory.
Chaos Theory is a field of study in
mathema cs, with applica ons in
several disciplines including
meteorology, physics, engineering,
economics, biology, and philosophy. The
name bu erfly effect was coined by a
mathema cian named Edward Lorenz
and describes the sensi ve dependency
on ini al condi ons in which a small
change at one place in a determinis c
nonlinear system can result in large
differences in a later state.
52- Nu Vibez Magazine - February 2014

To illustrate the meaning of the bu erfly
effect, Lorenz used the example of a
hurricane being the end result of a chain
reac on caused several weeks earlier by
a bu erfly simply flu ering its wings. This
example to describe the effect, helps
m e r e m o r t a l s ( l i ke y o u r s t r u l y )
understand what Lorenz is saying about
the power of cause and effect. And as we
made reference to earlier, the Ashton
Kutcher film by the same tle, also
a emps to help us understand this
principle of Chaos theory in simplis c
laymen's terms.
What seems to be the most important
informa on conveyed through
understand the bu erfly effect is that
everything seems to be connected in
some way or another. The knowledge
that our ac ons have ripple effects we