HelenaP
April 17th, 2008, 02:08 PM
Edward Lorenz, father of chaos theory, dies
Thu Apr 17, 12:57 PM ET
NEW YORK (AFP) - Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist who became the father of the modern field of chaos theory, died Wednesday of cancer in Massachusetts aged 90, MIT announced Thursday.
A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Lorenz was the first to identify chaotic behavior in the mathematical modeling of weather systems, in which small differences in a dynamic system, like the weather, "could trigger vast and often unsuspected results," the university said.
A committee that awarded him the 1991 Kyoto prize for basic sciences wrote that Lorenz's groundbreaking theory represented "one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton."
Lorenz's research led him to develop what became known as the "butterfly effect," the idea that an infinitesimally small alteration -- like the flapping of an insect's wings -- can lead to potentially monumental consequences.
The term stemmed from his 1972 academic paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?"
Read the rest here... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080417/sc_afp/ussciencelorenz_080417165749;_ylt=AgbhMh7ymw_VhvB. I4D2pEME1vAI)
Thu Apr 17, 12:57 PM ET
NEW YORK (AFP) - Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist who became the father of the modern field of chaos theory, died Wednesday of cancer in Massachusetts aged 90, MIT announced Thursday.
A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Lorenz was the first to identify chaotic behavior in the mathematical modeling of weather systems, in which small differences in a dynamic system, like the weather, "could trigger vast and often unsuspected results," the university said.
A committee that awarded him the 1991 Kyoto prize for basic sciences wrote that Lorenz's groundbreaking theory represented "one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton."
Lorenz's research led him to develop what became known as the "butterfly effect," the idea that an infinitesimally small alteration -- like the flapping of an insect's wings -- can lead to potentially monumental consequences.
The term stemmed from his 1972 academic paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?"
Read the rest here... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080417/sc_afp/ussciencelorenz_080417165749;_ylt=AgbhMh7ymw_VhvB. I4D2pEME1vAI)