Written by: Aashrab Khanal - 22001, Grade XII
Posted on: 14 December, 2021
Just as I was writing the first word of this text , I paused for a couple of seconds. But why mention such a trivial event? Do a couple of seconds even matter in the vastness of our life? This is where the idea of the Butterfly effect comes in .
The term “Butterfly effect” is derived from the work of mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz. It is termed from the metaphorical example of a tornado’s conditions being altered by the flapping of wings of a butterfly several weeks earlier. The Butterfly effect was discovered by Lorenz when he saw vast differences in the weather predicted by his weather model after rounding the initial numerals in the data. Lorenz drew the inference that small changes in the data led to vastly different outcomes which was termed as the Butterfly effect. In mathematics, chaos theory deals with the concept of the Butterfly effect. The butterfly effect is observed in physical systems employed in the field of weather and quantum mechanics.
The idea of the butterfly effect is both intriguing and concerning. It is intriguing to sense how small things can have a big impact on life .My action of pausing which I mentioned at the beginning might have significantly altered my living. Every action leaves us with a different path to choose in life. But as humans, we cannot comprehend small actions capable of having a huge impact. Everyday we do things without giving it a second thought which is because impact is measured by perspective and the amount of thinking that goes into the action. There have been many instances in history where seemingly insignificant and small events have led to devastation on a larger scale affecting millions of people. The story of how Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated shows the effects of minor decisions. During the visit of Franz Ferdinand in Serbia, a group of assassins tried to assassinate him during a motorcade. The assassins hurled a grenade at the Archduke’s carriage but it exploded late and injured another group of people riding behind the Archduke. Later in the day, the Archduke decided to meet with the injured in the hospital but the chauffeur took a wrong turn and stopped right in front of one of the assassins named Gavrilo Princip who proceeded to shoot the Archduke and his wife. After this event , Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia which Serbia refused and the First World War began. A minor mistake by the chauffeur led to a war which had devastating consequences around the globe. We could argue that the First World War was unavoidable but without the small mistake, the timeline and the results of the war would be entirely different. A delay of even a few years could have altered future conflicts like the Second World War and relations of the west with the Middle East would have been different.
You as a reader will experience significant changes in life just by reading this text and spending the limited time left in your life in knowing about the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect shows that perspective cannot determine the importance of an action. Everything we consider as insignificant might have a significance beyond our imagination.
Source : [Wikipedia(“Butterfly effect”),Viewed in 2021]
