Friday 12 February 2010

Monty studies Chaos Theory

When a butterfly flutters its wings a hurricane – or some other catastrophe - will occur months later somewhere in the world. That is a simplistic and oft-repeated illustration of the complex and fascinating concept of Chaos.
Last night we were watching a television documentary about Chaos Theory ('The Secret Life of Chaos', broadcast on BBC4 in January 2010) in which Professor Jim Al-Khalili explained how chaos theory is intrinsic to the laws of physics.
Being, like A A Milne's 'Winnie the Pooh', a Bear of Very Little (Mathematical) Brain I shall need to watch this documentary many times. There were some beautiful images and I tended to get swept up in them and miss the salient points! I understand though that mathematics can begin to explain how life evolved.
Monty was very interested in the programme and I'm sure he will enjoy it again the next time we watch it.

Monty gazes at oscillating chemicals in petrie dishes self-organising and creating amazing patterns (after Boris Belousov)

a closer look . . .
Hello cousin!
A much closer look
Nature is not mechanical and does not behave in predictable ways!
Monty watches Professor Al-Khalili with an orrery

Winston watched for a while but stopped when he saw Barry with the camera!
He's not the scientist that Monty is and astronomy doesn't really excite him. He's more of a literary cat.

3 comments:

  1. Monty is beautiful and so intelligent. It's true about butterfly wings.

    Flash 55 - Priorities

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  2. It's wonderful to see the diversity in personality of cats and dogs. Your cats are as lovely as your dogs.

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  3. Both of ours watch telly! They particularly like nature programmes and anything with a moving target on a green background!
    I do feel better thanks too!

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