Interesting, from Quora:
“The mathematical version of the butterfly effect is easy to test. Some mathematical systems are chaotic and a trivial change in initial conditions will lead to large changes in the result. An example is the logistic difference equation
xn+1=rxn(1−xn)
In physical systems, the double pendulum is an example of a chaotic system, and very small changes in initial conditions lead to large changes in behavior.”
Was the Butterfly Effect ever proved or disproved?
Answer (1 of 2): The “butterfly effect” is an analogy for systems where minimal variations in the input can make a huge difference for the output. There is a branch of science that specializes on these types of systems, it is called “Chaos theory”. These systems are often very hard or even i... Read more
Interesting, from Quora:
“The mathematical version of the butterfly effect is easy to test. Some mathematical systems are chaotic and a trivial change in initial conditions will lead to large changes in the result. An example is the logistic difference equation
xn+1=rxn(1−xn)
In physical systems, the double pendulum is an example of a chaotic system, and very small changes in initial conditions lead to large changes in behavior.”
The idea of chaos theory as a thing-in-itself seems to have died an early death.