Can Maths Predict The Future? The Maths Behind Chaos Theory and Sudden Change

Since Newton, we are used to science making confident predictions about the future. For example, the motion of the planets and the times of the tides. However, some things seem very hard to predict, such as the stock market, or the weather in six months' time.

Is this a fault in the way we model these systems, or is there a genuine limit to how far we can predict the future? One explanation comes from the theory of chaos, which illustrates why small changes now can lead to large uncertainty in the future.

A lecture by Professor Chris Budd OBE, Gresham Professor of Geometry 9 October 2018

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-chaos-theory-change

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show