Sea gulls, butterflies, and grasshoppers: A brief history of the butterfly effect in nonlinear dynamics

✍ Scribed by Hilborn, Robert C.

• Book ID: 120816594
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 296 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-9505
• DOI: 10.1119/1.1636492

✦ Synopsis

The butterfly effect has become a popular metaphor for sensitive dependence on initial conditions—the hallmark of chaotic behavior. I describe how, where, and when this term was conceived in the 1970s. Surprisingly, the butterfly metaphor was predated by more than 70 years by the grasshopper effect.