Was just reading up on chaos mathematics...

[Pure Evil]

Ever since someone mentioned that Evolution 169 is about chaos theory, i became interested just by the name and decided to read up on it. I found a website that explains it very well and thorough, in simple terms; http://order.ph.utexas.edu/chaos/index.html
Its actually quite faschinating how nothing can be measured infinitely correct and that the tiniest, virtually irrelevent flaw in accuracy will lead to something totally different, totally unpredictable. Your thoughts, please.

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

That is why the weather-man is always wrong about the next-day's weather.

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=72025#post72025

On the opeth forum, we've been discussing time and parallels, and it ties in with the chaos theory perfectly. This is why there is no future!!

 

[Pure Evil]

cool, i'll definitely check it out

 

[jimbobhickville]

I can give you a nerdy example. In programming, compilers store floating point values (values that have decimal places) differently than integers. If you want to multiply a floating point value with an integer, the integer is approximated (i.e. 2 might become 1.9999999....). This can lead to tiny errors in calculations because, despite mathematical theory, approximations are not the same as real values. I discovered this recently when I was writing a rounding algorithm to round values to the nearest .25 instead of the nearest whole number. I would multiply the number by 4, round to the nearest integer (whole number), then divide by 4, and sometimes I'd get .250000000001 or .249999999 as results, when we all know that any whole number divided by 4 would contain exact multiples of .25. It's not exactly the same as chaos theory, but similar in that it shows that even tiny, irrelevant flaws in the approximating of decimal values can cause errors in the results.

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

...An even nerdier example:

When you are writing/programming a .WAD level file for 'DOOM' or 'DOOM II'. If the length of a wall is out by .0001, then the texture that you place on it will be that far out of sync, which in-turn leads the adjoining wall's texture to be out, and because of the odd lengths of the walls, the roof texture is then misaligned.

I am not a nerd! (By the way, i have found a way to combat this, but then other problems occur, and we have chaos again)

 

[GeniusGonInsane]

thanks for all that, it's really interesting...do you know of any other sites that i can get more reading on chaos theory?

 

[[KOTNO]Narrot]

lol.. it's wel know that .249999999.... is 25

 

[jimbobhickville]

Originally posted by [KOTNO]Narrot
lol.. it's wel know that .249999999.... is 25

According to mathematics, it is if the 9 repeats indefintely, but in reality if you see .249999999 you don't equate it with being the same as .25, and it can cause errors in your later calculations, because computers don't store infinte decimal places.

It was making my program output skewed results, and it was really pissing me off. I figured out a way around it, though, and I can't remember what it was.

 

[[KOTNO]Narrot]

this is why i added "...." after the 9999999 thing...i was not sure but i guessed you talked about .2499999999...

ok...got it now!

 

[jimbobhickville]

I misunderstood ya', sorry. Yeah, I can't remember the exact number of decimal places it stored, but it was only 10 or so. I should've been more clear on that.

 

[etherealsadness]

if you are interested in chaos mathematics there is a really disturbing movie called Pi (the math symbol) by the same guy who made Requiem for a Dream. Excelent movie.

 

[Pure Evil]

cool, what's it about?

 

[RETIREDTrapped]

...the chaos theory...

 

[Unregistered]

XSE=169=666

 

[ethereal_sadness]

Requiem for a Dream is about drugs and the effect it has on peoples lives, it is one of my favourite movies. Pi is about this mathematical genious who tries to predict paterns in the stock market. There is a....disturbing scene involving a drill at the end. I can't explain it very well but take my word for it, they are both worth watching.