====== Physical Chaos ======

Physical chaos is a body of ideas and theory related to the observation that when we model real world phenomena with realistic levels of complexity and nonlinearity, we find that the behavior over time of the system is unpredictable even though it is in principle deterministic.  It is unpredictable because as time progresses behavior becomes exquisitely dependent on what were initially negligible influences.  The canonical example of this is the [[wp>Butterfly_effect | Butterfly effect]], where the flap of the wings of a butterfly in Africa can cause a tornado in Kansas two months later.
====== See also ======
<pagelist>
  * [[prediction_is_intractable]]
  * [[emergence]]
</pagelist>

{{tag>unpredictability determinism chaos stub}}