butterfly effect

The behavior of a nonlinear (chaotic) dynamic system such as the atmosphere, which reveals the great dependence its evolution has on initial conditions. Discovered by chance, in the early 1960s, by the meteorologist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the USA, Edward Norton Lorenz (1917-2008), he made it known in an article - published in 1963 - that barely reached beyond the meteorological field. Worldwide recognition came to him in December 1972, following a lecture he gave at that year's AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) congress, titled: "Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?". Lorenz had discovered how the atmosphere is a system governed by the laws of chaos, which is why we are not able to predict its future behavior with total accuracy. Our inability to establish an initial atmospheric state with absolute precision sets a limit on the predictability of the system. The expression has become popularized and is used to indicate that everything is interconnected: something that occurs at a given moment and place can trigger something very different and unexpected far from there.