※ [本文轉錄自 image 看板] : MIT Prof, Father of Chaos Theory Dies : (WASHINGTON) — Edward Lorenz, the father of chaos theory, died at his home : in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday. He was 90. : He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he came : up with the scientific concept that small effects lead to big changes, : something that became known as the "butterfly effect." He explained how : something as minuscule as a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil changes : the constantly moving atmosphere in ways that could later trigger tornadoes : in Texas. : His discovery of "deterministic chaos" brought about "one of the most : dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton," said : the committee that awarded Lorenz the 1991 Kyoto Prize for basic sciences. It : was one of many scientific awards that Lorenz won. : Lorenz, a meteorologist, came up with the chaos theory concept in the 1960s : through his own meticulous work habits, said Kevin Trenberth, a student of : Lorenz's. Trenberth is now climate analysis chief at the National Center for : Atmospheric Research. : He inadvertently ran what seemed like the same calculations through a creaky : computer twice and came up with vastly different answers. When he tried to : figure out what happened, he noticed a slight decimal point change — less : than 0.0001 — wound up leading to significant error. That error became a : seminal scientific paper, presented in 1972, about the butterfly effect. : http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1731603,00.html Lorenz於家中過世享年90歲，他生前是麻省理工的教授，他提出"小變動造成大影響" 的科學概念，就是我們知道的蝴蝶效應---巴西蝴蝶揮動翅膀的擾動，會影響德州 的龍捲風。 他的混沌理論帶給我們自從牛頓以降對於自然看法的轉變，在1991年獲頒了Kyoto Prize 基礎科學獎，這只是他獲得的眾多獎項其中之一。Lorenz本身是氣象學家出身，他在 1960年開始發展他的混沌理論概念，他平常就養成嚴謹的工作態度習慣，有一次在 電腦計算中發現巨大的誤差。他試圖建構描述這樣的一種情形，他注意到最初小於萬分 之一小數點的誤差，最後會造成明顯的錯誤。他把他的蝴蝶效應的發現寫成論文投稿， 在1972年刊出。 -- --

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