Geek Joke

OK, so yesterdays post was a geek joke.

Heisenberg was a physicist. He came up with the idea that you could never be 100% certain what the position of an electron was in the subatomic world, because just by observing it, you had altered it. In other words, you could tell where it USED to be, but could never predict where it currently was, or where it would be.

This is called Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle.

This is a very important scientific theory, because it signals the end of the Clockwork Universe theory, and is considered by many to be the father of Chaos Theory.

For centuries, scientific theory was that through observation we could ultamitely predict atomic behavior if we just knew enough facts about the laws that govern it. In a gross sense this theory works, but when observing complex systems in nature, you cannot predict thier bahavior over time. Weather models can predict the future for only a very short time, then the variance from the models very quickly expands to the point of uselessness.

One explanation of this is called the Butterfly Effect. If a butterfly in the steppes of Russia flaps his wings, it causes a rainstorm in Paris.

The simple explanation goes something like this: A herd of caribou is feeding. A caribou sees a spot of color and goes over to investigate. It turns out to be a butterfly, who upon seeing the caribou, becomes disturbed, and flys off. This in turn startles the caribou, who gallops off, in turn startling the leader of the herd, who thinks something must be terribly wrong.

The herd leader running off causes the whole herd to gallop off, raising a large cloud of dust. This dust travels in the air, and provides the condensation nucleus for rain which in turn causes a rainstorm in Paris.

Is this predictable? no way.

Up with Chaos!