Edward Norton Lorenz

butterfly flutter wings part world hurricane

"When a butterfly flutters its wings in one part of the world, it can eventually cause a hurricane in another."

— Edward Norton Lorenz (1917-2008)

mathematician new concept old understood

"Mathematicians seem to have no difficulty in creating new concepts faster than the old ones become well understood."

— Edward Norton Lorenz (1917-2008)

chaotic system chaos prediction limit

"Unfortunately, recognizing a system as chaotic will not tell us all that we might like to know. It will not provide us with a means of predicting the future course of the system. It will tell us that there is a limit to how far ahead we can predict, but it may not tell us what this limit is."

— Edward Norton Lorenz (1917-2008)

chaos theory advice conclusions unexpected behavior

"Perhaps the best advice that chaos “theory” can give us is not to jump at conclusions; unexpected occurrences may constitute perfectly normal behavior."

— Edward Norton Lorenz (1917-2008)