Greek Χάος, Chaos) typically refers to unpredictability, and is the antithetical concept of cosmos. The word χάος did not mean "disorder" in classical-period ancient Greece. It meant "the primal emptiness, space". Chaos is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ghn or ghen meaning "gape, be wide open": compare "chasm" (from Greek χάσμα), and Anglo-Saxon gānian ("yawn"), geanian, ginian ("gape wide"). Due to people misunderstanding early Christian uses of the word, the meaning of the word changed to "disorder". (The Ancient Greek for "disorder" is ταραχή.). Mathematically, chaos
means an aperiodic deterministic behavior which is very sensitive to
its initial conditions, i.e., infinitesimal perturbations of boundary
conditions for a chaotic dynamic system originate finite variations of
the orbit in the phase space. |
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