The Butterfly Effect
Can a butterfly in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas? Not by force — but by changing everything that follows.
1963 (discovery), 1972 (butterfly metaphor coined)7 min read
Type
Causality
Cause, effect, and their possible loops.
8 entriesFilter these further →
Beginner
Ages 8+, no background needed.
Chesterton's Fence
You find a fence in the middle of a field with no obvious purpose. Remove it? Chesterton says no — and the reason reveals something about reform.
19297 min read
Intermediate
Curious teenagers and general adult readers.
Simpson's Paradox
A treatment does better for men, and better for women, and worse for people. None of the arithmetic is wrong.
1903 (Yule), 1951 (Simpson), 1972 (named)20 min read
The Grandfather Paradox
Travel back in time and stop your own grandparents from ever meeting. Then who was it that went back?
1943 (Barjavel's novel), with antecedents from the 1920s18 min read
The Jevons Paradox
Build an engine that burns less coal and the country ends up burning more coal. This was noticed in 1865 and has not stopped.
186518 min read
Berkson's Paradox
Two things with nothing whatever to do with each other can look strongly related — purely because of who ended up in the study.
194615 min read
Advanced
Undergraduate level in the relevant field.
Newcomb's Problem
The boxes are already filled. Does choosing one still change what is in them?
c. 1960 (posed), 1969 (published)10 min read
Expert
Graduate level or specialist readers.
The EPR Paradox
Measure one particle here and you instantly know something about its partner light-years away. Einstein thought this proved physics was unfinished.
1935 (argument), 1964 (Bell's theorem), 2015 (loophole-free tests)21 min read