"Form and chaos, order and disorder are like rivals competing for supremacy in
the vast arena that is our universe. Nature throws grotesque shapes and
turbulent events at us and yet, within them, we strive to find evidence of
patterns that we can classify and understand.
For centuries man has struggled to impose order on a perversely irregular world,
and what he couldn't understand was often ignored. Now, armed with a new
weapon, the computer, man is at last challenging the kingdom of chaos.
Describing the shapes and forms of the world, where the only straight lines are
the ones he has introduced. A new science is emerging from this challenge, a
science which promises to describe and explain the infinite complexity of the
busy world in which we live. It's a science which is producing a new geometry
that offers an insight into the surprising paradox that there is order even
within disorder. It's a science that is turning conventional thinking on its
head. A science called... Chaos."
Jeff Goldblum made a half-arsed attempt at explaining chaos theory in "Jurassic
Park", with his water drops and their "sensitive dependence on initial
conditions". This fascinating documentary makes a much better job of it. Some
of the pioneers of chaos theory help to explain, amongst other things, affine
transformations, fractals, strange attractors and the butterfly effect.
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Ready to Watch Equinox, Season 1989, Episode 1?