If a small detail was changed, the Holocaust could have been prevented, saving millions of lives. The death of Adolf Hitler’s mother caused him to move to Vienna. Afterward, Adolf Hitler applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna where he was denied. He had nowhere to go and this forced him into the slums, which turned him Anti-Semitic. From there he decided to join the German Army and soon gained power. The butterfly effect is a theory that states a small change will have a great effect over time. The slightest change will have a drastic difference. Relating to how the death of Hitler’s mother changed the course of history. The perspective of history and predictions revolve around this concept, that is why the butterfly effect is real and alters our timeline every day.
The butterfly effect was known ages ago but the name was originally created by Edward Norton Lorenz who was an American meteorologist. The concept revolved around the belief that one small change will lead through a series of events creating a disparate result. He had intentionally used the theory for creating weather prediction as part of his occupation. Lorenz once said “A flap of a Butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set a tornado in Texas.” During his studies he often used this metaphor to describe the concept. The meaning is that the behavior around us is not stable. A butterfly flapping its wings causes varied results. A way to describe it, is how the butterfly effect exponentially grows over time, causing a large impact.

The butterfly effect is a chaos theory. A chaos theory is nonlinear which means it is unpredictable. “It teaches you to expect the impossible”. The Chaos theory is different from the traditional science since it can not be predicted or controlled. In science you can often see predictable phenomena, examples are chemical reactions, laws of motion, gravity, physics, math, etc. Chaos relates to chance like a stock market, turbulence, and the butterfly effect. Weather predictions are a problem because there are infinite possibility. The best a meteorologist can predict is up to 4-5 day periods using supercomputers. In the current modern day, we use up to hundreds of supercomputers to make predictions but even they have limits. The weather predictions are nearly impossible to always guess proves the chaos theory actually exist in the real world.

There are still people who are against this theory for three main reasons. The first is the belief of a larger system or some other major theory around how the world works. Another is that there is no such thing as chaos.

Instead, they believe in something similar to fate, where it is destined to happen. Some people believe in their religion and there is one above all who is in control. However, we can defend the theory from a study in common suicides. “It was mentioned by a psychologist that there is often one small detail in suicides. It can be disproven with the butterfly effect how there are multiple conditions in a suicide with variables such as blood pressure, genetics, dispositions, physical health, and emotional factors.”

The theory has had a great impact on our culture. The butterfly effect can be seen in many sci-fi television, writing, movies, and in theories. They are all based on time travel involving around the butterfly effect. A scientific study was made by running models of the same time period with one minuscule difference to a variable. Over time, the data starts to diverge from each other. With the model, we can relate this to time traveling. The theory is: “What if you travel to the past or future and changed one thing?” Based on the model it would diverge, eventually creating a different timeline, hence an alternate universe. This would be important to understand if there was a day that we can travel through time.

Based on an interview of my mother I wanted to see if she had any personal butterfly effect of her own. What I noticed that she didn’t really believe that a small change can create a big difference. This was interesting because she was against the chaos theory. I asked her “Was there any small details that has affected you, later causing a big change in your life?” She replied with, “Finishing school and working in a hospital really stressed me out. The result of the stress and being pregnant at the same time caused miscarriage. If the first baby was born, you wouldn’t have a younger sister because we only planned to have two kids after you were born.” This was my own personal example of a butterfly effect.

The a great historical representation of the butterfly effect was the case of John F Kennedy’s assassination (JFK).”JFK was born with one leg shorter than the other. This eventually led to his chronic back pain. Due to his back problems he got into an accident while playing sports; this forced him to wear a back brace. On the day he was assassinated he would have survived if he wasn’t wearing his back brace. The first shot was survivable hitting on the neck. That would have caused him to fall down avoiding the next shot. Since he had the brace on it had forced him to stand up straight.” Which resulted in his famous assassination. The United States would have completed changed based on this event if he had survived. The butterfly effect can show numerous numbers of cases and how our history would be altered based on one action.

Understanding the importance of this theory affects how we perceive the world and how it works. The butterfly effect has revolutionized our culture, understanding of history, all the way to weather predictions. A tiny detail can change the course of history and your life forever.