The term butterfly effect has entered everyday vocabulary from the mathematics of chaos theory and refers to the possibility of a major event (such as a tornado) starting from something so slight as the flutter of a butterfly wing. This sensitivity to small changes is a characteristic of chaotic systems. Recent news in Science magazine (9 May 2014) has drawn my attention to sea butterflies -- and the effect that ocean acidification is having on the lives of these tiny, fragile creatures -- and the environmental warning that this portends. From the details offered in Science, I have constructed this poem of 4x4 square-stanzas:
Warned by Sea Butterflies by JoAnne Growney
Sea butterflies --
no larger than
a grain of sand,
named for the way
Showing posts with label butterfly effect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label butterfly effect. Show all posts
Monday, June 30, 2014
Monday, November 22, 2010
Butterfly Effects
An equation or system of equations is said to be "ill-conditioned" if a small change in input data can produce a very large change in the output. This inverse relationship between input and output has become popularly known by the phrase "butterfly effect." Two poets from Eastern Pennsylvania, Gary Fincke and Harry Humes, have written poems about this phenomenon.
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