Butterfly effect

Posted by Lewis on February 02, 2006

In Reply to: For the sake of a nail posted by Victoria S Dennis on February 02, 2006

: : can you find out the meanig of this phrase for me as I have tryed everything. "for the sake of a nail a shoe was lost, for the sake of a shoe a hourse was lost, foe the sake of a hourse the battle was lost"

: It means that small accidents, or minor acts of carelessness, can have big consequences. The standard full version of the rhyme is this:
: For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
: For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
: For want of a horse the rider was lost.
: For want of a rider the battle was lost.
: For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
: And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Perhaps the "butterfly effect" - that a minute change somewhere can lead to cataclysmic-scale change elsewhere should have been named the 'nail effect'. after all, the idea is that a lost nail leads to a change in government.

I think we should ask Schroedinger's cat about it.

L

• Butterfly effect Bob 02/February/06