what does "butterfly effect" mean?

Answer 1

it means that in life we can make a choice to do something so small.....like the faint flap of a butterfly movment (which is almost nothing) and that minute change can manage to totall change our lives and those around us.
I will give you a butterfly moment that I had. I was at a stop sign and would of usually turned right to get to the freeway, but I was thinking about what someone said on TV about if he had made one different choice his wife wouldn't of been killed in a car crash. So, I was thinking about my life and my choices and wonderfing if I was making the right choices in life. I talked out loud to myself and made the decision to go straight and not turned, Turning would of probably gotten me on the freeway sooner. But I was being pensive and thinking about choices.
As I got on the freeway I talked out loud to God, asking if I was doing what I was suppose to be doing in life, and if not, then what. I asked why my kidney infection didn't go away......and so on .In the distance I saw some strange lights unlike lights normally seen on the freeway. I came closer and I was the first person to come across an accident. I had to decide which car needed me the most. The car against the railing didn't seem too bad, I chose to check out the car that had rolled and rolled and I couldn 't imagine anyone suriving it. I parked my car to keep away other traffic. The lady was alive her car seat had colapsed flat. the air bag had gone off. The lady was alive. I couldn't believe it possible. I thought I would find pieces of a body. The lady didn't speak english, I tried in my broken high school spanish to commuicate with her. A big tire came off the back of an RV.
And the lady swirved to miss it and her car rolled over and over until it was flat like a can. I helped the lady out of the car. Then when the para medics came I went to check out the other car (btw I am a retired nurse) The other car swirved when he saw the tire come at him, like something in a movie.. He plunged in to the side or the medium of the freeway. He was unharmed. And the amazing this is that the tire made its stop and settled in to the passenger seat of the car. All around us there were miricles.

The cops stopped traffic when it was time for me to drive off.
Then it suddenly hit me. I had made a butterfly decision to not turn and go straight to another way to get on the freeway. I started to cry. I figured one of two things would of happened. The worse would of been I would of been in the accident or I would of been just ahead of it and not able to stop and help. I looked up to the sky and told God.......boy I asked if I am in the right place doing the right thing......I am not srue i needed such a graphic lesson. *smile*

Answer 2

well the people talking about the butterfly in rio de jenero flapping its wings affecting weather in chicago is one thing. Another thing also is if someone could travel back in time and change one thing the very act of changing that one thing could change the whole course of human history or even make things worse. Like suppose i want to go back in time and not get married thinking my life would be better if i hadn't gotten married at 18 but then in this time i find out that i'm still living with my parents and basically waiting on my dad because he is sick my life is not better. If you watch the movie butterfly effect you will see much more extreme examples of this. You have to stick right with the movie though or you won't know what is going on.

Answer 3

It's based on a part of chaos theory, usually used to try and explain it to anyone who isn't a chaos theorist.

The idea is that a small change in a given system (ie a butterfly flapping its wings) can, over the course of many interactions, have a massive effect (ie affecting hurricanes and weather patterns on the other side of the globe).

The point is that every little piece of a system leads to a particular outcome, varying any piece, no matter how seemingly trivial, can result in a dratically different result once the system is propagated.

Heres a wikipedia piece on it too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

Answer 4

The tiny flap of a butterfly's wings might make a wind current that will build up and cause a very powerful storm across the world. Its not a true effect it really does not exist the rotation of the earth and the sun effect all weather on our planet well that and pollution landscapes stuff on that line.

Answer 5

The phenomenon whereby a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere, e.g., a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro might change the weather in Chicago

Answer 6

A butterfly fanning his wings on the coast of africa can cause a hurricane in florida.

Basically, this is a theory that is not to be taken literally, it just means that very small occurences can end up causing very extreme, chaotic results.

Answer 7

Since you are asking this in the disease section, I wonder if you don't mean the butterfly rash that occurs on the face of people suffering the disease lupus erythematosis?

Answer 8

everything gets all choppy, like when you look at a butterfly's wings when they're flying, the image's movements are distorted. Sort of like when you're dancing with a strobe light.

Answer 9

Good question but sorry i don't know the answer but I'll check back to see what it is.