The butterfly effect is minor differences in values of patameters in differential equation end up affecting the final result.
The reason this occurs is the way differential equations are solved, because a direct solution is rarely possible for them, they are solved iteratively until the values converge. But with enough iterations a difference of 0.(0)1 (e.g. 0.48763999 and 0.48764) in the intial parameters results in massive differences
When this is applied to weather prediction the difference is between a cyclone and not, because the the difference in the intial parameters is so small they were likened to a butterfly flapping it wings and thus the name
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