The Butterfly Effect - What Does It Really Signify?

Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures: Tim Palmer - The Butterfly Effect - What Does It Really Signify?

Meteorologist Ed Lorenz was one of the founding fathers of chaos theory. In 1963 he showed with just three simple equations that the world around us could be both completely deterministic and yet practically unpredictable. In the 1990s, Lorenz’s work was popularised by science writer James Gleick who used the phrase “The Butterfly Effect” to describe Lorenz’s work. The notion that the flap of a butterfly’s wings could change the course of weather was an idea that Lorenz himself used. However, he used it to describe something much more radical - he didn’t know whether the Butterfly Effect was true or not.

In this lecture Tim Palmer discusses Ed Lorenz the man and his work, and compares and contrasts the meaning of the “Butterfly Effect" as most people understand it today, and as Lorenz himself intended it to mean.

Tim Palmer is Royal Society Research Professor in Climate Physics at the University of Oxford.

[Achrononmaster]

Whoa! Nostalgia buzz! Did anyone else read Gleick's book when it first came out? He also wrote a biography of Feynman, but "Chaos" was his best. I remember thinking at the time it would be one of the most important books I ever read, because it opened my eyes to the depth in classical mechanics, when at the time I was thinking life as a physicist would just be all about quantum mechanics and string theory. I was astounded our lecturers were not teaching non-linear dynamical systems.

[PaulPukite]

ENSO was thought to be chaotic but it's not. Solving the nonlinear equations confined to the equatorial waveguide, one can get an accurate model using tidal forcing, just as Laplace would have done over 200 years ago.

[Alixpt]

A wonderful talk about the very cleaver scientist Ed Lorenz, that dare to be curious and challenge the consensus of its time. In this process he opened the window for the unknown and help us to formulate more questions!!! For example, What is the link between the constant 14 and the CO2 in the exquisite justification of Tim Palmer about the supposed role of this molecule in the Climate Change? Nevertheless this communicative nonlianearity did'nt stain the general presentation.
Alexandre

[owlnationlegal]

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[mrv]

Tidbit of information for you Brits.... There was no Air Force during WWII. It was called the Army Air Corps....

[jillianwebb-sear]

Seriously I'd ask for my money back on this course

[petrusliekas]

Very poor quality slides. Poor school and bad teachers.

[petrusliekas]

Please, make more efficient and better quality videos. This is f*cking oxford. Stop wasting others' time. Time is money.