Could someone please explain the butterfly effect?
401274
so if a butterfly flaps its wings it creates a tiny bit of wind, right? the theory is that if that butterfly creates that bit of wind, it changes the strength of the wind overall, and so alters the weather, and the weather alters peoples' plans and the survival of species and a million other things... \n\nit's one way of saying that nothing is so insignifigant that it doesn't make a difference, and the smallest things can still have huge impacts. it's a metaphor for chaos theory.\n\ni reccommend the second link, it's more fun. wikipedia is more informative, though.
761452
Here is a great site that thoroughly explains it:\nhttp://www.howstuffworks.com/question524.htm
315636
About this there are three theories. One, basing itself on an archaic Dutch word for butterfly, 'boterschijte' is that this reflects the color of a butterfly's bowel movements. The problem with this, of course, is that other than to\nvoid excess water, butterflies do not excrete.\n\nA second explanation, i.e., that males of the common\nbrimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni, Pieridae) of England\nare a buttery yellow.\n\nA third theory holds that, in medieval folklore, butterflies\nwere believed to be disguised witches or fairies who stole\nbutter from pantries and churns. The belief in butter-stealing fairies still existed in England at the time of Shakespeare
85273
Sounds like a question i'd ask Doc Brown on Back to the Future, what happens when history is changed?  Playing with the space time continuum is risky business.  Have you heard of the Chaos Theory?  Any little event can cause major ripple effects that may be worse than the one that was 'supposed' to happen.  For example, you kill al the terrorists who flew into the WTC and Pentagon, which means there was no stopping of commercial airline traffic....which means the terrorists on the west coast were able to carry out their suicide missions...which means one of them struck a nuclear power plant that released radiation travelling world-wide.  You get my drift, and, oh by the way, there were terrorists who were ready to takeover aircraft on the westcoast, but thanks to the FAA clamp down on traffic, their plans were thwarted.  Their targets are unknown, i only picked a nuclear facility to make a point.
1017394
The idea in meteorology that the flapping of a butterfly's wing will create a disturbance that in the chaotic motion of the atmosphere will become amplified eventually to change the large scale atmospheric motion, so that the long term behavior becomes impossible to forecast.\n\nThe "Butterfly Effect" is often ascribed to Lorenz. In a paper in 1963 given to the New York Academy of Sciences he remarks:\n\n"One meteorologist remarked that if the theory were correct, one flap of a seagull's wings would be enough to alter the course of the weather forever."\n\nBy the time of his talk at the December 1972 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. the sea gull had evolved into the more poetic butterfly - the title of his talk was* :\n"Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?"
125057
Same reason it makes it go up. Bernoulli's law.
945619
I think butterfly marketing is another name for buzz marketing, named after the "Butterfly Effect" (catastrophe theory) - if a butterfly flaps its wings in China, the effects are felt all over the world.\n\nBuzz marketing is where you find a small group of influencers who talk your brand/program up.
284388
I read one article before about something like that in an encyclopedia. I believe it's called the strobe effect.\n\nGomen ne, I am no science whiz but I found this more detailed article. Hope this helps.
1023476
Well, take a look at this:\n\nhttp://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/2.asp
600743
The butterfly effect is an example of the chaos theory at work.  Simply put (overly simply) chaos theory states that all things interact together in a chaotic but predictable way if we could understand and map every detail of everything involved. The butterfly effect is an example of this.\n\nThe Butterfly effect is a theory that states a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa could be the reason it rains in Chicago 3 days later.  Basically, if we could map how the air molocules move from the butterflies wings, and how they move other molocules and so on, it would eventually have billions and billions of molocules moving as a result of 1 butterfly cuasing currently unpredicitable effects all of the earth or universe for that matter.
771697
Try Google or Yahoo.  You'll find worked examples there.  I think it needs diagrams to understand; they and the accompanying explanations are too complex to attempt to reproduce here.
145631
The 'How Stuff Works' website has a really good explanation.  You can find it at http://home.howstuffworks.com/question420.htm
502544
The simple explanation for this is given by Le Chatlier's Principle...The site below gives a clear explanation of the same :
504220
It's a little more complicated than that, but it's one of those funny factoids tossed about in any discussion of chaotic systems (such as the weather).\n\nThe idea is that micro-currents of air can influence subtle movements of larger currents of air, which in turn influence larger currents and so on, until you get a hurricane.  This has been proven by mathematical models of these chaotic systems, showing that one of the original influences of hurricane formation was a microcurrent of air of equivalent force to a butterfly flapping.\n\nBut to say A "caused" B is figurative; actually A only influenced the creation of B.  And it certainly doesn't mean that every time a butterfly flaps, we get a hurricane.
945372
Get some help here:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_movement
50897
It's kida hard to explain comprehensively in 1000 characters or less, so the next best thing I can do right now is put a link to a website that explains the  diferences in layman's term in the source below.\nHope that helps you out.
352846
If you click the link below, you will find some explanations!\n\nGood luck,\nTiff