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The Theory of Chaos
Where Chaos begins, classical science ends. Ever since physicists have inquired into the laws of nature, the have not begun to explore irregular side of nature, the erratic and discontinuous side, that have always puzzled scientists. They did not attempt to understand disorder in the atmosphere, the turbulent sea, the oscillations of the heart and brain, and the fluctuations of wildlife populations. All of these things were taken for granted until in the 1970's some American and European scientists began to investigate the randomness of nature.
They were physicists, biologists, chemists and mathematicians but they were all seeking one thing: connections between different kinds of irregularity. "Physiologists found a surprising order in the chaos that develops in the human heart, the prime cause of a sudden, unexplained death. Ecologists explored the rise and fall of gypsy moth populations. Economists dug out old stock price data and tried a new kind of analysis.
The insights that emerged led directly into the natural world- the shapes of clouds, the paths of lightning, the microscopic intertwining of blood vessels, the galactic clustering of stars." (Gleick, 1987)
The man most responsible for coming up with the Chaos theory was Mitchell Feigenbaum, who was one of a handful of scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico when he first started thinking about Chaos. Feigenbaum was a little known scientist from New York, with only one published work to his name. He was working on nothing very important, like quasi periodicity, in which he and only he had 26 hour days instead of the usual 24. He gave that up because he could not bear to wake up to setting sun, which happened periodically. He spent most of time watching clouds from the hiking trails above the laboratory. To him could represented a side of nature that the mainstream of physics had passed by, a side that was fuzzy and detailed, and structured yet unpredictable. He thought about these things quietly, without producing any work.
After he started looking, chaos seemed to be everywhere. A flag snaps back and forth in the wind. A dripping faucet changes from a steady pattern to a random one. A rising column of smoke disappears into random swirls. "Chaos breaks across the lines that separate scientific disciplines. Because it is a science of the global nature of systems, it has brought together thinkers from fields that have been widely separated.
The Scientific Context of the Word Chaos In a scientific context, the word chaos has a slightly different
“Chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives.”(Crichton 313). Ian Malcolm’s words resolve the book, Jurassic Park, in a very absolute way. Throughout the book, Malcolm, spoke about chaos theory and his self proclaimed “Malcolm Effect” to explain his reasoning in his predictions. Ian Malcolm had predicted the demise of Jurassic Park even before its opening, as well as its multiple problems and difficulties. Malcolm’s theory is evidenced countless times throughout the story of Jurassic Park; dinosaurs are breeding, dinosaurs are escaping, and systems fail.
Indirectly through out his novel, Camus compares people who rely too much on their logic and rationality, versus those who accept that our world is confusing and unpredictable. Similar to his thinking, in “Crickets, Bats, Cats and Chaos” Lewis Thomas suggests that chaos stimulates the brain and actually suggests that even crickets or cats have thoughts during chaotic or unpredictable situations. Even though I have always seen chaos as a total lack of order, a desperate situation in which an individual loses control, Thomas gave me a new concept for chaos. He says that it emerges when a system is altered by a small change or small uncertainty in its interior; chaos is then the
... in order to affect the world. Chaos becomes, by the end of the novel, nearly
I believe that the world is orderly and I base my assumption off of what I know from bible, astronomy, biology, and physics. I do not think the universe is chaotic, I think the world functions uniformly starting from an atomic level.
Jeffries, M. P. (2011). The 'Path of the Earth'.
Yet in Time’s Arrow, entropy is not just never truly reduced, it is ultimately increased. Thus, Amis argues that entropy’s effect on humanity is an inherently human creation. We create our own misery, our own disorder, our own chaos, regardless of the physical laws and the direction in which time is flowing. Therefore, in Time’s Arrow Amis suggests that humans are inherently entropic creatures, so much so that entropy as it pertains to us is less of a physical property, and more of a human characteristic.
Impey, Chris. How It Began: A Time-traveler's Guide to the Universe. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 123+. Print.
The theme of this essay outlines two things. One, the key elements of Bretton woods system and second, the characterisation of Bretton woods system by Ruggie as ‘embedded liberalism’, and how far he succeeds in it. The Bretton woods system is widely referred to the international monetary regime, which prevailed from the end of the World War 2 until the early 1970s. After the end of the World War 2, the need of international monetary framework to boost trade and economic; growth and stability, was important. Taking its name from the site of the 1944 conference, attended by all forty-four allied nations; the Bretton Woods system consisted of four key elements. First, to make a system in which each member nation has to fix or peg his currency exchange rate against the gold or U.S. dollar, as the key currency. Secondly, the free exchange of currencies between countries at the established and fixed exchange rate; plus or minus a one-percent margin. Thirdly, to create an institutional forum, so-called International Monetary Fund (IMF), for the international co-operation on money matters: to set up, stabilize, and watch over exchange rates. Fourth, to remove all the existing exchange controls limiting (protectionism) policies by the members, on the use of its currency for international trade. In practice the first scheme, as well as its later development and final demise, were directly dependent on the preferences and policies of its most powerful member, the United States. According to John Gerard Ruggie, 1982, this Bretton woods system of monetary co-operation represented the type of liberalism which characterise “domestic social economic stability along with a liberal trading order.” He referred this system as ‘embed...
In Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, the strongest conflict is an internal conflict that is most prominently shown in Marlow and Kurtz. This conflict is the struggle between their image of themselves as civilized human beings and the ease of abandoning their morality once they leave society. This inability has a close resemblance to the chaos theory. This is shown through the contrast of Kurtz as told by others and the actuality of him and through the progression of Marlow's character throughout Heart of Darkness.
Complex science provides an opportunity to break down something known to be a very large structure in order to see answers from a more individual point of view. It can become very beneficial in the long run depending on how it is applied. However, that’s just it you do not need to know how the entire global economic system works in order to benefit from it. When Benoit Mandelbrot created fractals they were used in various ways, to measure nature an...
Chaos theory has numerous application including helping explain phenomena or helping to predict the future. Chaos theory is applicable in various fields ranging from weather, business to medicine. Chaos theory explains the reason why it is practically improbable to predict the weather with the current technology as well as providing a way for people to find patterns in the chaotic system of stock exchange. It also helps with the running of organisation by showing what sort of condition is needed for a profitable business as well as helping doctors predict when heart failure may occur. Fractals which is a concept of chaos theory also is portrayed in the natural world in examples such as lightning and neurons in the brains. Chaos theory has
Amidst many similarities, the rift between ancient and modern science is enormous and has frequently left historians puzzled. Although it is clear to historians that the stagnant science of ancient times developed into the modern scientific pursuit in the 17th century, it is not clear what specifically caused this revolution of scientific thought.
The IMF was established to promote internal monetary cooperation through a permanent institution, which provides the machinery for consultation and collaboration on international monetary problems. Also, it provides temporary financial assistance to countries under adequate safeguards to help ease balance of payments adjustments. In addition, it facilitates the expansion and balanced growth of internal trade.
...t. The Chaos Game can be applied to create other fractals and shapes, and is a major part of an entirely separate area of study: chaos theory. The fact that the Sierpinski Triangle transcends the boundaries of fractal and number theory proves that it is an important part of mathematics. Perhaps the Sierpinski Triangle still holds secrets that, if discovered, will change the way we think about mathematics forever.