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Chaos: The Science of the Butterfly Effect

Veritasium - 2019-12-06

Chaos theory means deterministic systems can be unpredictable. Thanks to LastPass for sponsoring this video. Click here to start using LastPass: https://ve42.co/VeLP 
Animations by Prof. Robert Ghrist: https://ve42.co/Ghrist

Want to know more about chaos theory and non-linear dynamical systems? Check out: https://ve42.co/chaos-math

Butterfly footage courtesy of Phil Torres and The Jungle Diaries: https://ve42.co/monarch
Solar system, 3-body and printout animations by Jonny Hyman
Some animations made with Universe Sandbox: https://universesandbox.com/
Special thanks to Prof. Mason Porter at UCLA who I interviewed for this video.

I have long wanted to make a video about chaos, ever since reading James Gleick's fantastic book, Chaos. I hope this video gives an idea of phase space - a picture of dynamical systems in which each point completely represents the state of the system. For a pendulum, phase space is only 2-dimensional and you can get orbits (in the case of an undamped pendulum) or an inward spiral (in the case of a pendulum with friction). For the Lorenz equations we need three dimensions to show the phase space. The attractor you find for these equations is said to be strange and chaotic because there is no loop, only infinite curves that never intersect. This explains why the motion is so unpredictable - two different initial conditions that are very close together can end up arbitrarily far apart.

Music from https://epidemicsound.com "The Longest Rest" "A Sound Foundation" "Seaweed"

Vic Wat - 2019-12-08

"That's on the scale of atoms, pretty insignificant on the scale of people," said the pile of atoms.

Lily _sunshine - 2021-01-31

@snipers unite lmao

slkjvlkfsvnls dfhgdght - 2021-02-23

@Deepstaria Enigmatica I think that humans prove that being small, doesn't mean being insignificant

Avishai Kruger - 2021-03-16

Many chaotic events become predictable

slkjvlkfsvnls dfhgdght - 2021-03-17

@Avishai Kruger isn't it the other way around? that many predictable systems become chaotic given enough time?

Avishai Kruger - 2021-03-17

@slkjvlkfsvnls dfhgdght I guess you can say it goes both ways.

Andrej Ferdinand - 2020-10-17

Having a bad math teacher at very young age, has the butterfly effect on the rest of your life; for example

Trey Atkins - 2021-03-13

@DESI RAP BEATS not always. There's some instances where having it taught to you helps you learn and remember it. And it's certainly a lot faster and a lot more fun than having your nose stuck in a book trying to learn all day.

DESI RAP BEATS - 2021-03-13

@Trey Atkins there is nobody in this world to teach you in the way you can understand you have to work for yourself

Mitchell Sommer - 2021-03-17

Must have had a bad English teacher too.

Anka Andrews - 2021-03-17

@Mitchell Sommer What does that have to do with the point he is trying to make lol

krish Thattar - 2021-03-21

wouldnt that be a domino effect?

Faith - 2020-07-22

And this is why I will always smile and compliment strangers. Idk what kind words or gestures could majorly effect someone’s life.

nothing to see here move along - 2021-03-19

“Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle“ - some greek philosopher forgot who it was

Josh Young - 2021-03-20

Yes but... the very nature of stochastic processes means that every compliment you pay has roughly an equal chance of causing the rise to power of the next Hitler! The goodness of your input has essentially no influence on the goodness or badness of its effects. That's why I kick puppies. Jk lmao

Faith - 2021-03-21

@Josh Young dang😭 i mean in theory you’re not wrong haha. and i know this is hypothetical and kinda a joke but i just gotta say that positivity reaps positivity. if it somehow ends up corrupted well then it isn’t your fault. so am i saying don’t worry about creating the next hitler because it was a simple mistake? kind of😂

Faith - 2021-03-21

@prum chhangsreng hm this makes sense!! thanks for further explaining

BubaQ - 2021-03-22

Or your life

Sarthak Gavhankar - 2020-10-06

Why am I interested in this and not in my studies?!

Rama Arafat - 2021-02-11

Maybe you should change your studies then lol. But maybe its your destity...

Richard - 2021-02-15

This were written to make you interested. All the boring stuff were taken out.

shantanu039 - 2021-02-27

@Richard yes, the devil lies in the details

DEVIL - 2021-03-14

@shantanu039 yeah, it's real, I'm the devil.

Oliver M - 2021-03-19

Bad teachers 100% of the time

Seven Aries - 2021-03-14

TLDR: We can't predict the future accurately enough because we don't know the present accurately enough.

Manuela Tobaldini - 2021-03-22

neither the present nor the past

Matt Bowen - 2020-10-10

For some reason I find theoretical physics like this rather unsettling. The existential implications are interesting but simultaneously disturbing

matt carrswold - 2021-03-17

It is not a paradox. Exciting and unsettling are not mutually exclusive. A HORROR film is both EXCITING and UNSETTLING.

adad - 2020-10-01

People watching this video after 1000 years.

"Lmao this guy is a caveman"

slkjvlkfsvnls dfhgdght - 2021-02-23

pretty much

Daringcuteseal - 2021-03-19

Houseman*, people in 3000s won't live in house anymore

movezig5 - 2020-11-01

Tl;dr: The universe has RNG.

indra gaming - 2021-01-21

@Mason Sousa lmao without "nerds" you wouldnt be here, all the technology you use everyday was made by "nerds"

Howdie Rowdie - 2021-01-28

RNG isnt as chaotic as Chaos.

Cpt. Battlecock - 2021-02-04

Terrible RNG - some aussie speedrunner.

Geoffrey Stevens - 2021-02-26

It's why my shots on World of Tanks never do any damage but the enemy blows my tank up....

εμψυχωτής - 2021-03-16

@indra gaming I'm sure he was joking around.

Accel Lex - 2020-07-23

Me: Releases hundreds of captive butterflies into the wild
Stranger 1: "That's so nice. It's a beautiful sight to release gentle creatures like that."
Stranger 2: "He's obviously feeding the local birds. He'd release them in captivity if he cared about their safety."
Stranger 3: "He must just be doing something like blowing bubbles to feel good."

Me: Thinking "Go my pets! Use your butterfly effect to cause tornadoes across the world! Fly my pets! I will destroy it all with butterflies!"

Walid Fakhfakh - 2020-10-17

@K1naku5ana3R1ka saha lik fil canada ou el weh weh mta3 el christmas

GentlesirGibbles - 2020-12-24

The monarch from venture brothers would like to start a chat with you.
https://youtu.be/MMGhw-FJsuI

Lokesh Agarwal - 2021-02-10

did satan offer you a job?

Accel Lex - 2021-02-10

I’m curious that if chaos theory says that, does it only affect similar disasters? So using your example, the flaps cause 5 tornados, but extinguishes 5 as well. Equilibrium is achieved. But what if the 5 tornadoes each resulted in the evacuation of those towns affected, leaving those displaced people to flee into the other saved towns. This may lead to overpopulation depending on the size, which may lead to a number of other problems like riots if the refuges can’t receive proper accommodations.
In this worse for wear example, would the bad get canceled out?

Katherine Casey - 2021-03-10

Sounds like Hawkmoth with his akumas.

Purva Pawar - 2020-04-26

Every decision you have made in your entire life has led you to reading this comment.

slkjvlkfsvnls dfhgdght - 2021-02-23

@Matt Lesner no it isn't because nature is random on a fundamental level. see veritasiaum's/vsausce's videos "what is random" and "what is not random"

Vincaster - 2021-02-25

Are you Saitama comment level?

Andrewson - 2021-02-25

You didn't make the decisions, your surroundings did.

Salim Abdullah - 2021-02-28

👎

Chris Savage - 2021-03-18

Not completely true. Some decisions I’ve made would have led me to never read this comment had not other future decisions overruled them.

Seven Aries - 2021-03-14

TLDR: We can't accurately predict the future because we can't accurately know the present

Naud van Dalen - 2020-10-24

The bat effect: A single person ate a bat and over a million people died.

Kaze Xo - 2020-12-05

I can't believe this many people actually believe this "bat soup" bs hoax, people need to grow some brains and have some common sense nowadays.

Namjoon in Dynamite teaser pictures. That's it. - 2020-12-13

@Abishek Raju Yes, you're telling the truth.

tevy sret - 2021-01-21

@Kaze Xo These bat theories aren't baseless, we can't just throw them out of the variables before we have found out about the truth.

Tabasco Blast - 2021-02-06

Martha..

Morthos Talisint - 2021-02-13

Mates, I don't care where Coronavirus started. The fact is, it's here now, and we need to fix it. For a virus, finding the original won't help much, especially now that we have multiple vaccines for it. So even if you disagree with the bat theory, or with any other theory, it's not worth arguing about. I don't even care what people think I believe about the origin, I just care about getting vaccinated.

BadonkaStonk - 2020-10-05

This used to drive me insane when I was younger. Everything I did i would ask myself how will this effect my future me and at one point I had to submit myself to nature itself and let my future be wherever it must be.

I went through this crisis at age 15 and it wasn't until I was 16 that I finally let go of my controlled fall through life and finally let myself freefall through life like a leaf in the wind.

A M - 2020-11-07

same! but it happened to me wheb i was 12-13

BadonkaStonk - 2020-11-07

Its a blessing and a curse. It just means you are self aware and know what it means to be alive and human.

Roti - 2021-01-10

I am 15 it's happening with me NOW

NUMEGA 7 - 2021-02-05

Lol this happened to me at like 11

Trx2l - 2021-03-20

nice name

Akash B - 2020-10-02

Butterfly effect is a nightmare for people with OCD.

James Dinius - 2019-12-06

Sensitive dependency on initial conditions: The exact present exactly predicts the future, but the approximate present doesn't approximately predict the future.

Zacharias Price - 2020-08-01

@Nom Bell's Theorem has proven there are no local hidden variables in quantum mechanics. For there to be some underlying hidden variable in QM, that would necessitate faster than light travel, violate the principle of Causality, and Einstein's General Relativity would have to be wrong. And that's a huge problem, because Einstein's General Relativity has been experimentally proven right to the point of exhaustion.

Leggo MuhEggo - 2020-08-02

@David Lewis not just completely observe it but reproduce it. id think entropy would say no for the universe as a system

Leggo MuhEggo - 2020-08-02

@PersonalPerson hw is not actually deterministic either. Works on quantum effects.

Asaph73 - 2021-03-06

oh yeah... them PhDs in theoretical physics are having a mini-symposium here.

Vaiterius - 2021-03-07

well put well put

Robbierobot574 - 2020-08-05

When I first heard the butterfly effect I actually thought it was named after the shape of the Lorenz curve.

Mairet Murias - 2021-03-22

As a mathematician, I hate this name "Butterfly effect", the actual name is sensitive dependence on initial conditions. On chaos theory, this not necessarily mean that butterflies have any effect on our life, but that the measures on nonlinear systems can be very different depending on the initial conditions.

Reanetse Moleleki - 2020-12-13

I'd like to apologize for that monsoon I caused all those years back in Bangladesh. It won't happen again, probably.

Kusou Saiki - 2020-10-03

He said, "There is a silver lining" and a stupid snapchat ad came along

T4zchi - 2020-10-27

For me it was some voting thing

Loop - 2020-10-29

@T4zchi is it an FX Pro or something

T4zchi - 2020-10-29

@Loop No, just a "vote for this guy because he exists" kind of ad

A Kale - 2021-02-03

Yara yare.. mandoksei

Russwane - 2019-12-09

If only someone had explained science this way when I was younger.

R Shiva Vamshi - 2020-09-01

Ya..but it's never too late to do something 😂

Charles Packwood - 2020-09-04

You're actually implying a reverse butterfly effect. By changing the system of your life in the past, your assumption is that there would be a known benefit to your life in the present. Bro. I became very smart just by watching this one video!

Techno Mage - 2020-11-11

When you were younger there were not many people that had access to as much data and such good explanations. Thanks to the mighty internet we are able to globally commune and debate and sort through ideas.

E E - 2020-12-04

@Michiel van der Blonk the problem is that many libraries dont have any actual books on science. It's easy to get a book at the bookstore, but at the same time any good books will be 30$+. Everybody has a computer though, its required nowadays.

Muhammad Nada - 2020-12-06

I have the same thought but then I say to my self , it was impossible on the technical scale 20 years provide great deal of technology and understanding that permit what you see here.

DeathX6X - 2021-02-06

"Here's ah thing about the future, everytime you look at it, it changes, because you looked at it, and that changes everything else."

Seven Aries - 2021-03-14

Leaving a comment here in case someone else says anything about this

KlaxonCow - 2021-03-09

"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think... there are no little things."
- Bruce Barton

Murkorus - 2020-10-04

Theoretically, if we knew the starting position of everything in the universe, and we knew the 'real' physics of the universe, then we would be able to predict everything, no matter how far into the future. Only theoretically though, since we probably will never get to a point where we can know perfect physics and the starting position of literally every particle in the entire universe.

Stratos Koutroulis - 2020-10-21

Chaotic systems need infinite precision to be predictable which is impossible. The universe will never be completely predictable.

SNM 2 - 2021-01-15

But this means that when you would „Build“ a new universe, that would Start exactly the same as ours, then everything would be the same. Then this would mean there is no „free will“

Mücahit Kabadayı - 2021-02-12

Your content is the premium side of youtube.

Puff Of Smoke - 2020-11-09

If everything is deemed predictable, then there's a glitch in the system.

JMUDoc - 2020-10-21

8:39 - how did Derek get footage of me playing QWOP?

abdullah shourav - 2021-03-23

thanks for sponsoring"how to not use your brain's memory in life"

Matei Stefan - 2021-02-26

9:05 If within 15 mil. years things could look so different from predictions, and the same applies to the past, how do we know there was a Big-Bang?

NZT - 2020-02-01

I understand and mostly don't understand this at the same time. How Schrödinger.

Abdalla Mohammed - 2020-10-08

You mean you're in a state of decoherence

pnartg - 2020-10-16

You won't know whether you understood it or didn't understand it until you open the box and collapse the wave equation.

marsupius - 2020-10-28

How quantomly entangled can you get?

Esmeralda Khufra - 2020-12-02

When they talk about time travel, people almost always state that they'd make enormous changes for present day with small actions in the past.
But rarely do people think that they can take small actions today to cause great change tomorrow.

Eef - 2020-12-11

eyyy i just came from that video

Mister Fister - 2020-10-25

This also implies that free will is an illusion. Every decision you will make or have ever made was always going to happen. Try not to have an existential crisis thinking about this.

Jaseem Shan - 2020-10-28

I too think like this
Everyone's life is fixed

kareemah ajina - 2020-10-29

Destiny!

Iman Khan - 2020-11-13

Like dark. Netflix.

Namjoon in Dynamite teaser pictures. That's it. - 2020-12-13

i did.

Faheem Malik - 2021-02-02

Is there any relation between "the logistic map" and "the Butterfly Effect"?

RedStride Technologies - 2021-03-23

so, there's infinitely many infinities

TheRedPandaGamer - 2021-03-23

to the guy who made the pendulum 3d model: why is the source of light coming from the ground. why are the shadows on the ceiling

Gautam Srivastava - 2020-10-06

"Each path is an infinite curve in a finite space" .....did he just describe the Universe 🤔 and the movement of electrons in atom too?

harley4219 - 2020-10-20

everything travels on a strait trajectory only space time is bent to a curve.

Dafin Bardhiaz - 2021-02-02

a single wind hitting your dad might slows him down for a second. your dad feels the wind hitting him, making him act differently and walks different from before he hits the wind. that single scenario alone can makes a significant difference from not meeting your mom or being a bit late to work. when he late at work, he rushes to his office and runs. the wind he hit makes the wind late to hit someone. that late wind makes the other person act differently too. he then stands up from his chair and his body blocks sunshine from a small tree. that small tree might be producing a different amount of oxygen and energy because that person blocked the sunshine.

this can go forever. this is just a small example what butterfly effect might be look like

Eric Justice - 2021-01-02

when i saw the 3 colored dots he created and heard his explantion of it, then thinking back to the moon, tells me that someone(God) had to set it in motion

Sven Wachsmuth - 2021-03-11

I suggest the "Life is strange" series as computer game and comics as well. It's about time travel and how little changes in the past can have effect in the present. And also there is a blue butterfly... very interesting and changes how I see the world around me.

Laurelle Sheng - 2021-03-15

i saw a complete play through of it. It was unsettling and beautiful

Sven Wachsmuth - 2021-03-16

@Laurelle Sheng It is only one of the possible play-throughs. ;-)

Laurelle Sheng - 2021-03-16

@Sven Wachsmuth yep there are so many choices, it got me sweating nervously.

SangoProductions213 - 2019-12-06

When they talk about time travel, people almost always state that they'd make enormous changes for present day with small actions in the past.
But rarely do people think that they can take small actions today to cause great change tomorrow.

Chickleader - 2020-11-02

@mackk123 You're a genius, you genius.

Organic Bow - 2020-11-13

Thats the thing. Neither do anything.

Jeremy Roland - 2020-12-01

Wow.

A M - 2020-12-08

@John Behrens what I was gonna

Jan Lukas - 2020-12-10

Problem is: you don't know the consequences of the things you're doing or could be doing now, so you do or don't do them

SuperMaDBrothers - 2020-07-29

I had to stop watching this because of they way he kept saying "pendulum"

Anima - 2021-03-23

Is that a Celestron AVX Mount in the background? Do you only visually explore the universe or do you take photos too?
Man, I love astrophotography

Mabel Carpenter - 2020-12-01

"That's on the scale of atoms, pretty insignificant on the scale of people," said the pile of atoms.

Lloyd Padiernos - 2021-03-20

Finally, I understand the Butterfly Effect.

Joseph Tran - 2019-12-07

"The printer rounded to 3 decimal places whereas the computer calculated 6"


The ghost of significant figures

Kane Nexus - 2019-12-09

@bngr bngr I can see you aren't a programmer so you don't understand the math. It's a very common programmer joke, if you don't get it by now you probably never will. Look at my previous explanation about rounding errors. If you still don't get it, it's all good.

bngr bngr - 2019-12-09

Kane Nexus there is no rounding error if you properly specify the number 1. There is a significant difference between a whole number vs a real number that might be rational or irrational.

Kane Nexus - 2019-12-10

@bngr bngr Now that the joke is a bloody mass on the floor let me spell out the program that you aren't understanding.
variable A = 1.7
equation A + A = B
Result B = 3.4
before displaying any variables round down to whole integer
display A "+" A "=" B
1 + 1 = 3


Therefore 1 + 1 = 3 for large values of 1
This is referred to as a rounding error where the results don't represent what actually happens or might not have the intended outcome.
When you introduce programming logic to mathematics then you can manipulate mathematics into a new form of mathematics that doesn't follow the normal mathematical logic.
If you insist on beating this dead horse into fertilizer I hope understanding blossoms from your ignorance.

Michael McNeil - 2019-12-10

@Kane Nexus > There are two types of people in the world, ten that understand binary and one that don't. FTFY

usern4metak3ns - 2020-06-12

@Kane Nexus or. 10 types of people in the world, 9 that dont require binary to enjoy life and 1 that is cursed to find meaning in being binary.

plastic bag man - 2020-11-22

"I mean sure, there's Heisenberg's uncertainty principle from quantum mechanics, but that's on the scale of atoms, Pretty insignificant on the scale of people." your arrogance and subscriber count scares me

Niall's Living Art - 2020-10-14

12:33 "...using your brain for what it's meant to be doing." Such as loving the butterfly effect and loving your videos.

͔ - 2021-01-11

So, lets figure out how far this will go with this youtube recommendation chain. I was impressed by the fact that seemingly there was 25k people who came from scythe lady video to the scythe festival one. From now on i am going to watch next 100 videos with this comment numerating my path.
This is comment №55

Indpendent01 - 2020-10-12

6:17 Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions reminds me of how the Amazon resume picker AI went wrong and why they cancelled it.

SnowTV - 2019-12-08

So basically the meaning of my life is a rounding error.




Annnnnd my most upvoted comment is about the meaning of my life is a rounding error.

10k subscribers with no videos challenge - 2020-06-11

@Magnus Jonsson life without chaos is like being the perfect human. Imagine being so perfect there's no point to discover new things or just simply push the boundaries when there's no boundaries because you're perfect. What makes you human is because you faced the flaws being a human, and that's what made you a human. Things change and becomes better stuff when chaos exists, through chaos nature can adjust and make itself better.

In terms of quotes here it is: "A calm ocean never made a great sailor"

As always we end up with the butterfly effect whenever we answer why chaos exists.

Thriller MJ - 2020-06-30

Human life on earth is an error.

Leggo MuhEggo - 2020-08-02

its 42 exactly

BassRemedy - 2020-10-19

the meaning of your life (i would say) is using what influence you have on the giant domino line that is the universe, to make things better. for example sharing good ideas, helping people who need it, thinking deeply about certain things and doing your best no matter what!

Dr. TM - 2020-10-26

It's all your fault raymoo.

NullVoidNA - 2020-07-08

Wow, you explained this perfectly. Thanks! I always thought the butterfly effect was absurd superstition, but now I understand the concept!

Prem Sagar - 2020-12-02

No one is talking about those 2010 “memes”