The Butterfly Effect
Last week we asked our community to submit ideas or concepts that can be represented through symbols. We really liked the clever use of symbols by Toke Frello Hansen of Denmark to demonstrate the “Butterfly Effect” through the simple use of icons. To view this shirt in our store, click here.
The phrase “Butterfly Effect” refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a hurricane or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a hurricane in another location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. While the butterfly does not “cause” the hurricane in the sense of providing the energy for the hurrincane, it does “cause” it in the sense that the flap of its wings is an essential part of the initial conditions resulting in a hurricane, and without that flap that particular hurricane would not have existed.
Congratulations on the great idea Toke!
To read more about the Butterfly Effect and Chaos Theory, visit Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
