Edward Lorenz; Father of Chaos theory and the Butterfly Effect

I’m really fascinated by this idea that small changes can bring about large effects. I’ve come across it in other courses I’ve taken in my undergraduate career, but I have never looked much into it. It was always just something to do with whatever we were studying at the time, and never the main focus. However, in the reading this week and the discussion post this topic came more into the forefront, which has inspired me to do more research on it.

With that being said, I thought it would be interesting, for the purpose of my blog this week, to talk a little bit about the father of Chaos Theory and the Butterfly effect, Edward Lorenz.

Just to start off, some background information on Lorenz: He was born in Connecticut. He studied mathematics at both Dartmouth College and Harvard. From 1942 until 1946, he served as a meteorologist for the United States Army Air Corps. After his return, he decided to study meteorology, earning two degrees from MIT, where he later became a professor until his death.

Lorenz was a mathematician and meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who loved meteorology. With the help of computers and specialized machines, Lorenz saw the chance to combine mathematics and meteorology.

Using a system of equations to mimic the convection in the atmosphere, Lorenz discovered the underlying mechanism of deterministic chaos: which he defined as a  “simple formulated systems with only a few variables that can display highly complicated behavior that is unpredictable.”

Lorenz recognized that slight differences in one variable had profound effects on the outcome of the whole system. This was one of the first clear demonstrations of sensitive dependence on initial conditions.

These observations ultimately led him to formulate what became known as the butterfly effect--a term that grew out of an academic paper he presented in 1972 entitled: "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"

Edward Lorenz died at the age of 90 on April 16 2008. Though, not before making some incredible contributions to not only mathematics, but also almost every branch of science there is. In meteorology, it led to the finding that it may be fundamentally impossible to predict weather beyond two or three weeks with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Some scientists have since asserted that the 20th century will be remembered for three scientific revolutions--relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos.