A Complex Systems Scientist Explains: What Is Chaos?
Mitchell Newberry, University of Michigan
Chaos evokes images of the dinosaurs running wild in Jurassic Park, or my friend’s toddler ravaging the living room.
In a chaotic world, you never know what to expect. Stuff is happening all the time, driven by any kind of random impulse.
But chaos has a deeper meaning in connection to physics and climate science, related to how certain systems – like the weather or the behavior of a toddler – are fundamentally unpredictable.
Scientists define chaos as the amplified effects of tiny changes in the present moment that lead to long-term unpredictability. Picture two almost identical storylines. In one version, two people bump into each other in a train station; but in the other, the train arrives 10 seconds earlier and the meeting never happens. F...