Deterministic chaos (Lorenz attractor)
Caos determinista (atractor de Lorenz)
- Date
- 1963 · confidence high
- Place
- MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Edward Lorenz; Henri Poincaré
- People
- 👤 Edward Lorenz1917–2008
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A simple model of atmospheric convection shows extreme sensitivity to initial conditions: deterministic systems can be unpredictable in the long term. It fundamentally limits weather forecasting and founds chaos theory.
The 'butterfly effect' comes from a 1972 talk by Lorenz.
What it led to
- Chaos theory and nonlinear dynamical systems
- Limit of weather predictability (about two weeks)
- Fractals and strange attractors
- Ensemble forecasting
Built on
- Poincaré–Bendixson theorem1901
- Poincaré's three-body problem (1890)
- Digital computers (Royal McBee LGP-30)
- KAM theory
Made possible
- Ensemble weather forecasting
- Chaos-based encryption and control