What is Chaos?

Ilona_Ritter

Which meaning would you like? There's the dictionary definition which is basically when everything is in an uproar and nothing makes sense. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chaos There's also a Chaos in Greek mythology, which is where the world sprang from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_%28mythology%29 There is also a Chinese god named Chaos. He had no eyes or ears. When he got them he died. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_%28Chinese_god%29 [Added reference links - McG] Jun 05 05, 12:06 PM

peasypod

Chaos, in the world of quantum mechanics, is unpredictable behaviour occurring in response to precisely deterministic laws. An essential feature of the chaotic system is that its behaviour is non-linear, so that a small change in the initial conditions of an experiment (or of a situation in the real world *ahem* 'butterfly effect' is a goodie) may have a very large influence on the outcome of this experiment. Jun 05 05, 5:56 PM

gmackematix

Confused, disordered and unpredictable are three words at the heart of most meanings of chaos (capitalised or otherwise). The word derived from the name given in Greek myth to the unorganised gulf or primordial matter from which spewed forth the universe. Strangely, it is thought to have the same root as "khaino", Greek for "I yawn". Hence, it came to mean any state of confusion which is the usual meaning of "chaos" today. Incidentally, from the word chaos, a 17th century Belgian coined the word "gas". In the last few decades, the word "chaos" in the scientific community has come to mean behaviour of a system of particles which is unpredictable because the slightest error in calculating where all the particles are now greatly affects future predictions. Weather, monetary flow, taps dripping at certain frequencies and even things usually considered regular such as heart beats and the orbiting of planets have all been shown to be chaotic in certain circumstances. Even more recently, Chaos has been a watery character in Sonic the Hedgehog games and a character in Terry Pratchett books. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos Jun 05 05, 7:09 PM

intergalactic9

Chaos is a Greek word meaning a state of disorder. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chaos Jun 17 08, 1:00 PM