Interesting facts about Chaos Theory
September 11, 2009 | In: Space Facts
Chaos theory is a popular name for the mathematical study of complex, unstable systems. A system tends to be chaotic when even a small change in initial conditions can lead to drastically different results.
Chaos theory has obvious applications in the world, as most real world situations are chaotic, with none chaotic theories of physics normally approximating the real situations. Examples of where it is useful include biological systems, physical systems and economics.
Edward Lorentz helped form the field, by showing that small changes in initial conditions can have large impacts. This idea, which has been called the butterfly affect, was a major change of viewpoint for many in the scientific community.
Phase space represents all the possible states of a system, with each point in phase space representing one possible state. An attractor is a point in phase space towards which the system will converge, and which it will return despite small disturbances.