http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-04-16-obit-lorenz_N.htm
Posted by: "V.Z. Nuri" vznuri@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
vznuri
Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:46 pm (PDT)
Father of chaos theory dies at 90
WASHINGTON (AP) — Edward Lorenz, the father of chaos theory, died at his
home in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday. He was 90.
He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he
came up with the scientific concept that small effects lead to big
changes, something that became known as the "butterfly effect." He
explained how something as minuscule as a butterfly flapping its wings
in Brazil changes the constantly moving atmosphere in ways that could
later trigger tornadoes in Texas.
His discovery of "deterministic chaos" brought about "one of the most
dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton,"
said the committee that awarded Lorenz the 1991 Kyoto Prize for basic
sciences. It was one of many scientific awards that Lorenz won.
Lorenz, a meteorologist, came up with the chaos theory concept in the
1960s through his own meticulous work habits, said Kevin Trenberth, a
student of Lorenz's. Trenberth is now climate analysis chief at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research.
He inadvertently ran what seemed like the same calculations through a
creaky computer twice and came up with vastly different answers. When he
tried to figure out what happened, he noticed a slight decimal point
change — less than 0.0001 — wound up leading to significant error. That
error became a seminal scientific paper, presented in 1972, about the
butterfly effect.
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