ok, so heres my dumbed down explanation via an already dumbed down book on an already dumbed down experiment ... it goes like this ...
you can observe a very simplified case of convection by studying a lorenzian waterwheel over a period of several hours ... as one cup fills up and starts to drain, it puts the wheel in motion, allowing the next cup to begin filling up, increasing the tempo at which the wheel spins, but also limiting the amount of time it has to fill up ... after a while, the rotation of the wheel will reverse as the weight on one side has built enough to force it back the other way ... now, to the casual observer, upon first glance at the device, it would appear that either the wheel would spin in one direction with possibly small (but predictable) fluxuations in speed, or that the wheel would oscillate back and forth at a predictable pace ... however, this is not the case ... since the engine is inherently non-linear, it produces unexpected results that are still bound within a certain range, and since there are 3 variables within the equations used to map this device, it is possible to create a 3d map of the data ...
beauty out of chaos
make your own lorenz attractor (start the applet)
more fun with chaotic structures
youve heard of the mandelbrot set, but you heard of the buddhabrot set ?
ps bad ashton kucher (sp?) movies need not apply
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