17/4/2008 From El País
Edward Lorenz, científico estadounidense conocido por crear la teoría del caos que explica por qué es tan difícil hacer pronósticos meteorológicos, ha muerto hoy de cáncer a los 90 años en su residencia de Cambridge, ha informado el Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts (MIT).
Lorenz, meteorológo, descubrió en 1960 que pequeñas diferencias en un sistema dinámico como la atmósfera puede provocar cambios enormes. En 1972, este científico estadounidense presentó un estudio titulado: ¿Puede el aleteo de las alas de una mariposa en Brasil provocar un tornado en Tejas?.Sus conclusiones abrieron un nuevo campo de estudios que incluyeron virtualmente todas las ramas de las ciencias, y en el caso específico de la meteorología, llevaron al convencimiento de que era imposible pronosticar el estado del tiempo más allá de dos o tres semanas con cierto grado de precisión. Al demostrar que ciertos sistemas tienen límites de predicción, Lorenz “acabó con el universo cartesiano y dio pie a la tercera revolución científica del siglo XX”, después de las teorías de la relatividad y la física cuántica, señaló Kerry Emanuel, profesor de ciencias atmosféricas del MIT.Su trayectoria como meteorólogoNacido en 1917 en West Hartford, Connecticut, Lorenz se licenció en matemáticas en la Universidad de Harvard y en el Colegio Dartmouth en 1938 para graduarse como meteorólogo del MIT en 1943. “Desde niño siempre me interesaron los números y me fascinaban los cambios del clima”, señaló en una autobiografía.Después de ser miembro del personal del Departamento de Meteoroogía del MIT entre 1948 y 1955, Lorenz fue designado profesor y después director del departamento hasta 1981. Durante su vida profesional recibió innumerables galardones por su trabajo científico, entre ellos, el Premio Crafoord que otorga la Academia Real de Ciencias de Suecia creado en reconocimiento de labores científicas no incluidas en los Premios Nobel.En 1991, recibió el Premio Kioto para las ciencias planetarias y de la Tierra. En esa ocasión, el jurado que decidió el galardón señaló que Lorenz “tuvo su más osado logro científico al descubrir el caos determinista, un principio que llevó consigo los cambios más dramáticos en la visión humana de la naturaleza” desde los tiempos del naturalista inglés Isaac Newton.
This article is really interesting.
It is an interesting article that explains how Edward Lorenz developed the theory of chaos and opened a new mathematical idea. The other day I saw an episode of Numbers which use of chaos theory.
When I read this article I was very surprised because I thought that a little fact that happens in a part of the Earth couldn’t affect all the planet and they weren’t important. But thinking more, it’s true that due to the internet and the globalization a lot of things that occurs in other parts of the world have influences in our lives.
claudia soler
I read this text and Ithink that is useful this because proof that there aren’t any machin that can deteminate what weather will be in three weeks ago.
I also think taht if this men open new doors to sutdy math and another scince the galarodns that he recived are whit a lot of work.
He also proof that with a little think that is the meteorogy if you do a good reason appeared news thinks of other science that dosen’t have any in common.
He is also importan because he is the satarter for the third cientiest revolution in the XX century
When I read this text, I saw that any small thing can change other thing much more.
I think that this man was very important to meteorology and in the general science.
Also think that if Edward Lorenz could discover the chaos theory very recently, perhaps that the other person can discover new things, that it can revolutionize the XXI century, at any time.
Miriam López
I like this article because is very interesting that a buterfly move the wings in Brasil and provocate a tornado in Tejas and the theory of caos is very extrange because is extrange that is imposible take a pronostic of the meteorologic.
Is important that he strarts the third cientific revolution in XX century.
I like this article because is very funny, curious and interesting how one buterfly when he moves his wings in a site and later create a tornado in other site.
Is curious when he sad that is imposible to take a pronostic of 2 weeks later because he have the reason and now with all the tecnologies that we have we don’t encert the pronostic of tomorrow.
I think that this text is interesting and I didn’t know that Edward Lorenz was famous and I’m very impressed of how he prooved things so difficult, for example that any machine can know the weather of the next three weeks. I think he was very important for meteorology and he finished with the cartesian universe and start the third cientiest revolution in the XX century. He create the theory of chaos, that consists in systems that presents a unpredictable behavior and randomly. I think that this rewards that he had, were very deserved.
I didn’t know who this man was but reading this new I realized that was and ia a very important artist of maths as we said in a previous new, he has made proofs and though about things that I couldn’t ever think of, like the try to proof that a butterfly in Brazil could provoke a hurrican in Tejas, it’s a thing that never could pass for my mind, but now that I have read it i’m thinking, not of thin, i’m thinking how a man can think about it, because, i’m sure that a man , a normal man, that you can ask of it wouldn’t mind of Tejas, Brazil or the butterfly, it’s something very extrange.
Well, but I thing that this mas thats as I said before I didn’t know untill the day of his death, is a symbol of maths and metheorology, and that he and his theories and proofs, discusions and all, have used a lot to us, to mathematicians and definitively to the world of maths.
This text is really interesting. I know who this man was and I think that it’s the most important man or one of them of the metheology world, I’m impressed of how a man can propound itself these hypothesis, I think it would be funny to know how he though and his motivations, likes and dislikes…what he though about the world in this moment, because all around us is math, and this would be an important opinion and another way to see the world, from the point of vew of an important methematician how was Lorenz.
However this man was like a metheology’s hero because he did that we though about maths and this is very important.
WOW!!! This man was a very amazing person, Im really surprised because he thought a lot of conclusions and did a lot of very important things in ralation with metheology. If they diden’t do this thingsnow we will don’t know the most part of our lives.
I think he was a very important man in the world of maths and its good know what he was done and what is the important has this things in the things we do every day in our lives. Its very interesting all the hypothesis he had.
For he is hypothesis we now thing different and correct things about nature.
In my opinion, Edward Lorenz was a very important man for meteorology because he discovered that we cannot know the weather in two or three weeks. This discover means the third revolution of the XX century, and its name was the chaos system. For this discover, he recived lots of awards and rewards.
This discover was so important that it provoked the most dramatic changes in the human vision of the nature.
When I read this article the first thing that came to my mind was: OOh! this man didn’t waste his life. He did what he wanted to do and he created “the chaos theory”. I think that he was very proud of his work and I really admire him fot this reason, but it’s the first time that I hear his name. And now I am asking myself if I didn’t know this man because I’m not cultured or because he and his theory aren’t such important. If the answer is not any of the possibilties I wrote before, then why I didn’t know about this man until he died?? Why I didn’t know about the man who started the third scientist revolution of the 20th century and why I don’t even know who started the 1st and the 2nd revolution?
we came to the world and we don’t have anything and we can do lots of things during our life but when we die, we still having nothing and I think that it’s good for us to learn about the life of people that spent their lifes working for the people and discovering things, at least to make that they haven’t been living and working for anything.
I know that maybe it isn’t what you were asking for the comment but I don’t want to write a comment saying things that i don’t really think only to do my homework.
Actually, I can’t say too much things about the Caos theory but that it is based on the simple fact of that nature doesn’t follow any pattern, but I also can say that this theory is more complicated than this. Apart of this, Edward Lorenz has a lot of merit if he proofed that a small movement such as a butterfly’s flight can make a hurricane.
I dissagree with the last part of the article, in which says that this discoverement is the biggest one since Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation, because there were other famous theories like the relativity.
As Andrea said, I think a little the same, but I don’t take importannce at Lorenz’s work, just that people’s work is usually more recognised after their death.
Edward Lorenz was a mathematician and meteorologist very important ,because it found that minimal changes in the atmosphere, they made major changes.
These changes he called “butterfly effect”.
His studies allowed to study all sciences “of chaos theory.”
For me , this man was an explorer of weather and caused other scientists change their ideas.
Hi! I don’t really understand that new so much, then i have look for informatio. That is what i have found:
Lorenz constructed a highly simplified mathematical model, which attempted to capture the behavior of convection in the atmosphere. Lorenz studied the solutions of his model and realized that minimal changes in the values of the initial variables resulted in widely divergent solutions. This sensitive dependence on initial conditions came to be known as the butterfly effect. His research led to a renewed interest in chaos theory.
Lorenz went on to explore the underlying mathematics and published his findings in a paper entitled “Deterministic nonperiodic flow in which he described a relatively simple system of equations that led to a pattern of infinite complexity, called the Lorenz attractor.
Now, i can comment that new, i think that, that man is a very intelligent, and interesting one, because he found a think that if we look it from another view, we can see that is a very important one. That smalls things are important too.
The Chaos theory is a surprising application of maths in the real life. For me it is hard to believe that the movement of the wings of a butterfly could generate a tornado. I searched information about the butterfly effect, and I found : “ It is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; so small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behaviour of the system.”
I think that the most important idea is that small acts in our behaviour can produce powerful effects in the world
At the beginning I didn’t understand the new, because I didn’t know who’s that man. I think that is complicate to understand the relationship between this two things.
In my opinion, I think that, this man is a very important and fantastic mathematician. He apply formulas to discover things about the weather!! At first I think: What’s the relationship between the weather and the numbers? We thing that the meteorology is one thing and maths another one. I also thing that is incredible that he thing about if the flapping of a butterfly wings in Brazil can cause a tornado many kilometres away. Nobody thing about that because they are kilometres away but, he do it.
When he discover that, we can realize that we can’t prognosticate the weather, because if the flapping of a butterfly wing can cause a tornado to many kilometres away, all the times that we saw a butterfly, we have to think that in some part of the world can became a tornado!
For that reason I thing that the Chaos theory is very important, because they say us that now they can do prognosticates after this theory, but I thing that there are more things that the scientific can do after this theory.
I think that is a pitty that this important man dead, because he was a very intelligent person. Before reading this new I didn’t know of Edward Lorenz or for the caos theory, now I see that this theory it’s easy to join with the weather. But before reading this new I didn’t see a relationship between the weather and maths.
Edward Lorenz died at 90 and he is very known by make the chaos theory. The chaos theory is a very curious theory that tell us the rare physical conduct of the meteorology. He wrote a very interesting article about of this rare physical conduct that says that a little changes and a little interventions in the environment could change the clima. A very little movemen of butterfly wings could change the clima in Tejas.
Edward Lorenz was a recognized metereologe who worked at Massachusetts Tecnologic Institut (MIT) and he recibed a lot of awards for his important investigations.