Laws of Chaos

Scientists studying the universe at all scales often marvel at the seemingly "unreasonable effectiveness" of mathematics—its uncanny ability to reveal the hidden order behind the most complex of nature's phenomena. They are not alone: Economists, sociologists, political scientists, and many other specialists have also experienced the wonder of math's muscle power.

It has been called the third great revolution of 20th-century physics, after relativity and quantum theory. But how can something called chaos theory help you understand an orderly world? What practical things might it be good for? What, in fact, is chaos theory? "Chaos theory," according to Dr. Steven Strogatz, Director of the Center for Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, "is the science of how things change." It describes the behavior of any system whose state evolves over time and whose behavior is sensitive to small changes in its initial conditions.