Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Randomness, the universe, and Turing machines
Summary: The Solar System may be chaotic.
Message-ID: <40656@linus.UUCP>
Date: 4 Oct 88 14:36:38 GMT
References: <936@l.cc.purdue.edu> <29891@bbn.COM> <210@ists>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Kort)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, Mass.
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For an interesting report on the subject of predictability vs. chaos,
see the current issue of Scientific American.  According to recent
studies, an infinitesimal perturbation in the initial conditions
of the orbit of Pluto leads to exponentially divergent solutions.
After 30 million years, the two solutions can place Pluto on opposite
sides of its orbit about the Sun.  And if the orbit of Pluto is chaotic,
then the whole Solar System is chaotic as well.  [The article can be
found the the Science and the Citizen column, and is titled "God takes
a nap".]

--Barry Kort