# Nonlinear Systems- 10 The Butterfly Effect

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the phenomenon of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. In this module we give an overview to the concept and its origins in meteorology with the famous Edward Lorenz computer experiment.

For full courses, transcriptions and downloads please see: http://www.complexityacademy.io

Transcription excerpt:

Science is dependent upon isolating a system so as to study it, but this is literally impossible, everything has an effect on everything else in our universe, every single particle of matter has some gravitation effect on every other particle of matter, irrespective of how much we try to isolate something the concept of an isolated system that has zero interaction with its environment is really just a theoretical one that does not exist in reality. This simple insight literally destroys the entire scientific enterprise. Science is dependent upon this capacity to isolate systems, because if we want to say A causes B then we need to be able to control for all other variables, that is remove them from the equation. As we have stated this is not possible. So how do we get round this stumbling block, as it appears the scientific endeavor goes on without this causing too much of a problem. What we do, because we can’t fully isolate any system, is essentially define what are significant effects and what are…

- Kind: Short
- Year: 2015
- Runtime: 5 min
- By: Complexity Academy
- Genres: Science
- Archive: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nonlinear_Systems-_10_The_Butterfly_Effect.webm)
- Licence or status: [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Complexity Academy
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/commons/58002332?play=1)