Imagine what this is going to say. “A butterfly flutters its wings over the region of Brazil. We can see nothing in it other than a statement that has nothing to do with reality, does it?
But this is part of a world-famous practice. This phenomenon, known as the “butterfly effect”, is widely discussed today. No matter how big or significant the event, it may be due to some small event or cause.
Wings of World War II
Do you know how World War I started? There are many reasons but the incident that led to it may seem very interesting to us. On June 28, 1914, a grenade was fired at the Duke of Austria. But the grenade fell on the vehicle behind him. He escaped without a scratch, but the occupants of the car in the back were hospitalized with serious injuries.
The next day he went there to visit those in the hospital. But his car lost its way. Not only did it get lost, but it broke down along the way. The breakdown was in front of a restaurant. One of the men who attacked Duke the other day at that restaurant was drinking tea. When he saw Duke outside, he took the gun in his hand and fired at him and his wife. Both died instantly.
This event led to World War I and the subsequent death of nearly 20 million people. Later, as a result of the war, tighter controls were imposed on Germany and Hitler’s leadership emerged once morest it, leading to World War II. More than 50 million people lost their lives in that war. So what was fundamentally the cause of these world wars?
Had it not been for the Austrian Duke of the day, his car would not have been parked exactly in front of that aggressive restaurant. He would not have been killed if he had not been there. If he had not been killed, World War I would not have happened. Then World War II would not have happened. So wasn’t that the incident that led Duke astray behind everything? What a tragedy that was! We can call this the “butterfly effect”. That is to say, the beginning of a big event is derived from a small event.
Covid’s wingspan
Let me give you another example. Where did Kovid, who has literally shocked the world for the past two years, start? It is not known exactly, but they may have been transmitted to humans by a butcher in Wuhan, China. If the butcher had not come that day because of body aches, Kovid would not have spilled anyone from there. The whole world was not spilled from China. That is, it happened at some point.
This is just an example. If we examine every important milestone in our lives like this, we can understand that it all started from some small point. This is also known as the “kiosk principle”. The kiosk principle is mostly used in mathematics. They can even be described as a branch of science in mathematics. What is meant here is that a small change in a system can make a big difference in its final product.
By the way the butterfly effect came
In the 1960s, Edward Lawrence, a meteorologist and mathematician in the United States, decided to combine the two to create a model. He decided to create a mathematical model of meteorology by combining mathematics and meteorology with computers.
His attempt to create a number of equations that include pressure, wind speed, velocity, and temperature. So he devised an equation. So one day he decided to study the data on his computer. To do this, he added and duplicated two identical data. It started out the same at the beginning but by the end there was a big difference in the incarnation. A small change at some point eventually turned into a big difference. This is what he called the “butterfly effect”. He also illustrated that the wings of a butterfly in one corner of the earth might be blown away by a hurricane in another.
Butterfly questioning Newton
Here the objections are raised to Isaac Newton’s third law, “Any action can have an equivalent reaction”.
That is, instead of being the equivalent reaction to any action, the fact is that a small action is not equivalent to a butterfly effect, but rather a doubling of the reaction. So the butterfly effect became, in a sense, a phenomenon that even questioned Newton’s famous third law of motion.
The wings have been shown solely to give a sense of proportion
Each of us has this kind of butterfly effect. If we look back at our lives, we will understand.
Our every move is a big deal. We have to pay a heavy price for every move. So while each of the butterfly’s wings happens in life, it’s hard to imagine how big it will be tomorrow. So let each wing be extremely careful.
(Author is Assistant Professor, Center for Science, Society, Cochin University.
Mobile 9946199199)
