Mathematics & Meteorology Achievement Timeline, 1960-75

1960

1961

1962

• MIT professor Edward N. Lorenz (1918-2008) accidentally discovers the branch of mathematics known today as Chaos Theory while working on a numerical weather prediction; publishes 1963 paper in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences called “Deterministic nonperiodic flow”; principles enunciated sometimes referred to as “the Butterfly Effect” that illustrates the importance of initial conditions in the behavior of dynamic systems but also the virtual impossibility of long-term predictions since small differences/errors in the initial conditions balloon into almost insurmountably random results the farther one ventures into the future.

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

• Mathemetician Benoit B. Madelbrot publishes in the journal Science, “How Long is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension,” a seminal article in the understanding of natural phenomena that came to called “fractals” in 1975. 

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975