Showing posts with label ill-conditioned. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ill-conditioned. Show all posts

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.