Chaos Theory-
covers all aspects of science, such as math, physics, biology, etc., and is used widely to describe an emerging scientific discipline whose boundaries are not clearly defined. In itself, Chaos Theory refers to the idea that small, seemingly insignificant differences or inconsistencies in a system will inevitably change the final outcome in a situation or event. A system is the understanding of the relationship between things that interact and up until recently when Chaos Theory was introduced, most systems were thought to be linear, or able to be graphed in a straight line. However, linear systems are easy to generate and simple to work with because they are very predictable, and most systems found in life are nonlinear. For example, you could take two piles of stones and pile them in the exact same way and predict that they'll fall down in the same pattern. If this were so, it would be labeled a linear system because it is easy to predict and could be graphed as a line; but with chaos theory, you must take into consideration every single detail about each stone, how it was stacked, and the conditions the stones were in then replicate it exactly into a separate pile of stones to predict that they will fall in the exact same way. These systems can be modeled and created to theoretically imitate the behavior of the original system. Contrary to popular belief, a factory is not a linear system. Adding a certain number of people or a certain number of inventory to the factory will not increase the number of pieces produced by the factory by a comparable amount. This illustrates the complexity of a non-linear system because it is not easily predicted or duplicated so that it could be predicted. (Quentmeyer, 1996, online)

One of the early pioneers of chaos theory was Edward Lorenz, who started out as a meteorologist. While trying to predict weather patterns on a computer system called the Royal McBee, Lorenz stumbled upon chaos theory when he plugged numbers into the computer expecting to get the same outcome as he had before. However, the outcome not only became different, but it changed drastically over the following months. Lorenz noticed that when he entered numbers into the situation, they had been rounded to the nearest thousandth; however, the computer's already stored numbers were rounded to the millionth position showing how such little change in a system can bring about a large, unexpected outcome. This is when Lorenz came up with the butterfly effect, stating that a butterfly could flap its wings in Hong Kong and it would effect the course of a tornado in Texas. (Davenport, Kraynak, Timko, 1997, online)
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