butterfly effect

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Coined by American author and historian of science James Gleick in 1987 in his book Chaos: Making a New Science, whose first chapter bears the title “The Butterfly Effect”, and in which he discusses “the paradox of the butterfly’s wings” potentially making the difference whether a hurricane will or will not arise somewhere else later. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz, the founder of modern chaos theory, had in 1972, at a scientific meeting, presented a paper entitled “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings set off a tornado in Texas?” without using the specific term butterfly effect. Lorenz also notes that representations of the strange attractor now known as the “Lorenz attractor” resemble a butterfly, as well as that correspondents have drawn his attention to Ray Bradbury’s short science fiction story “A Sound of Thunder”, in which a time traveler’s crushing a butterfly in the Late Cretaceous changes the outcome of a present-day presidential election. But the metaphorical butterfly was actually introduced in the title of the 1972 presentation by meteorologist Philip Merilees, who was not familiar with Bradbury’s story.

45 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: تَأْثِير الْفَرَاشَة (taʔṯīr al-farāša) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Armenian: թիթեռի էֆեկտ (tʻitʻeṙi ēfekt) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Asturian: efeutu caparina — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Azerbaijani: kəpənək effekti — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Basque: tximeleta efektu — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Bengali: বাটারফ্লাই ইফেক্ট (baṭarophlai iphekṭo) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Bulgarian: ефект на пеперудата (efekt na peperudata) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Catalan: efecte papallona — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Chinese Mandarin: 蝴蝶效應 /蝴蝶效应 (húdié xiàoyīng) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Czech: motýlí efekt — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Danish: sommerfugleeffekt — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Esperanto: papilia efiko — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Estonian: liblikaefekt — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Finnish: perhosvaikutus — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• French: effet papillon — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Galician: efecto bolboreta — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Georgian: პეპლის ეფექტი (ṗeṗlis epekṭi) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• German: Schmetterlingseffekt — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Greek: φαινόμενο της πεταλούδας (fainómeno tis petaloúdas) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Hebrew: אפקט הפרפר — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Hindi: तितली प्रभाव (titlī prabhāv) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Hindi: तितली असर (titlī asar) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Hungarian: pillangóhatás — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Indonesian: efek kupu-kupu — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Italian: effetto farfalla — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Japanese: バタフライ効果 (batafurai kōka) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Japanese: バタフライエフェクト (batafurai efekuto) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Kazakh: көбелек эффекті (köbelek éffektı) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Korean: 나비 효과 (nabi hyogwa) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Latvian: tauriņa efekts — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Lithuanian: drugelio efektas — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Malay: kesan kupu-kupu — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Malayalam: ബട്ടർഫ്ലൈ ഇഫക്ട് (baṭṭaṟphlai iphakṭŭ) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Persian: اثر پروانهای — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Polish: efekt motyla — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Portuguese: efeito borboleta — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Russian: эффе́кт ба́бочки (effékt bábočki) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Slovak: motýlí efekt — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Spanish: efecto mariposa — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Swedish: fjärilseffekten — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Tamil: பட்டாம்பூச்சி விளைவு (paṭṭāmpūcci viḷaivu) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Turkish: kelebek etkisi — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Ukrainian: ефект метелика (efekt metelyka) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Urdu: تتلی اثر (titlī asar) — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory
• Vietnamese: hiệu ứng bươm bướm — technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory