What Environmental Reporting Leaves Out

[reusrename]

32. You're no less correct than the article in the OP.

The original article is very misleading. I think most folks responding to this thread can understand a simple explanation of chaos theory, or more specifically, non-linear dynamic systems.

The simplest case I know of uses a waterwheel.

If we know the geometry of the wheel and buckets, the flow rate of the water, and the work that is being consumed by the wheel (including frictional resistance), we can calculate precisely what the steady-state velocity of the wheel will be.

If we punch a hole in each of the buckets, we can no longer calculate the terminal velocity of the wheel.

This is because the wheel will NEVER reach a steady-state velocity; its motion will have become chaotic.

The velocity of the wheel will continuously fluctuate around two points which are called attractors. We do have methods for calculating these attractors. In real life, if one were to build such a wheel, the speed would continuously undershoot the lower attractor and overshoot the higher attractor.

This is not a very complex subject that is too difficult for lay people to grasp, as the original article would have you believe.

Climate and weather, yep, very complex and very difficult to grasp. Chaos - not so much.