Quote:
Originally posted by Carbonated_Brains
My old nickname works! Sweet!
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Old nickname, my ass. You went and drug some poor grad student out of the research lab at MIT and made him post all that stuff under your "so-called" alias
Actually, the Lorenz graphs you posted were new to me and quite persuasive - particularly the last one. I also liked Slarti's graph (which, seemed to be making the same point). In particular, I thought the idea of "starting in the middle" to be significant since, although we haven't talked about it, chaotic systems don't really have a discreet beginning or end. Its not like dropping a bowling ball and measuring the dent in the ground. Its more like jumping on a moving freight train, taking some measurements and jumping off again.
What I don't get is
how such a small change can pick up strength as it ripples through the system over time. While Bruce provided a metaphorical scenario in which it was possible, it required a "parting of the Red Sea" w/r to all other variables - a state I considered so unlikely that it was hardly worth considering. At this point, I'll accept that my position was not correct -the graphs do a good job of explaining the increasing divergence. But now I'm really curious to understand how and why.
Oh, and thanks for taking the time to completely deconstruct my mental model for understanding the universe. Now that I understand what causes hurricanes, I'm going to go butterfly hunting - the world can thank me later. After that, I want to hunt down the cockroach that's going to cause the next earthquake - or is it prevent the next earthquake - I forget