Butterfly effect [wikipedia]

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Butterfly effect [wikipedia]

Summary

The butterfly effect is a concept from chaos theory that describes how very small changes in the initial conditions of a complex, nonlinear system can lead to dramatically different outcomes later. The idea is strongly associated with mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz, who discovered that tiny differences in weather model inputs could produce completely different predictions. 

The famous example of a butterfly flapping its wings causing a distant tornado is a metaphor illustrating extreme sensitivity to initial conditions, not a literal claim that one butterfly creates a storm. The concept shows why systems like weather, ecosystems, and economies can be highly unpredictable even when governed by deterministic rules.

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