The butterfly effect The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different
Home / Questions / Which phrase, also the title of a 2004 Ashton Kutcher movie, encapsulates the notion of ‘sensitive dependence on initial conditions’ of Chaos theory?