In December 1972, at the 139th annual meeting of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), meteorologist Edward Lorenz posed a question:
“Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”
Well, that’s a metaphor!
A butterfly’s wings could never trigger a tornado.
With this analogy, Edward Lorenz meant “an insignificant event like the butterfly flapping its wings, occurring at the appropriate time and place, may, in theory, trigger a chain reaction events that will result in the formation of a hurricane (significant change) somewhere else.”
This theory is called the butterfly effect.
He discovered the butterfly effect when he forecasted the weather. He found that even an error of a decimal point change in numbers affected drastically in his forecast.
It’s a principle we can all relate to. But it’s not just about chaos and unpredictability. It’s also about the power of small actions to create significant changes.