What is the "Chaos Theory" ?

Question

I heard it refered to, and I'm not aware of what it is, could someone explain what the theory is? thanks.

Answer 1

Chaos Theory is the (largely mathematical) study of what was once considered tiny and meaningless perturbations.  Small variables that are often impossible to predict or measure.  And what becomes interesting in such study is how these very small factors can come to dominate the whole system.  This is the so-called 'Butterfly Effect' which is an aspect of Chaos Theory but certainly not the entirety of it.

Some aspects of Chaos Theory lead to pretty interesting results.  One is a property of self similarity that can be seen at various levels (fractals) so that the profile of mountains on the horizon looks the way it does in part because of the profile of tiny pebbles on the same slope.  One of its best-known proponents, Benoit Mandlebrot, once argued that the coastline of Britain is of infinite length, because no matter how closely you look it still resembled a wrinkled coastline, so an infinitely sensitive measuring tool would have an infinite number of wrinkles to measure.

More practically, Chaos Theory has applications in meteorology and many large systems in helping to predict and control for those perturbations so they don't get too much in the way.  Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Just to add to what has already been said, "Chaos Theory" has been re-thought and named "Complexity Theory" by some. This renaming stems from the notion that just because causal relationships seem to be chaotic doesn't mean that there isn't an underlying set of complex systems at work.  

Answer 3

If I enter your life, chaos will follow!

Answer 4

same thing as the butterfly effect

Answer 5

the cosmos is alive.

try wiki or google for the long version

Answer 6

One effect could be seen in the flapping of butterfly wings here in the States which eventually can be the cause of a monsoon on the other side of the planet.......

Answer 7

(from Wikipedia)

In mathematics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain dynamical systems – that is, systems whose state evolves with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.

Chaotic behaviour is also observed in natural systems, such as the weather. This may be explained by a chaos-theoretical analysis of a mathematical model of such a system, embodying the laws of physics that are relevant for the natural system.