The Butterfly Effect.

"The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory."

The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena.

In many cases, minor and seemingly inconsequential actions in the past are extrapolated over time and can have radical effects on the present time of the main characters.

The movie The Butterfly Effect (2004) does not seriously explore the implications of the butterfly effect; only the lives of the principal characters seem to change from one scenario to another. The greater world around them is mostly unaffected. Furthermore, the changes made in the past of the principle character are far from minor and in that sense the title of the film is a misnomer. An element of the butterfly effect in general terms is that differences in start conditions for different scenario outcomes are virtually undetectable, and consequences are not related to cause in a directly apparent way. As an other example, the Portuguese gothic metal band Moonspell's fourth full length album The Butterfly Effect is inspired by chaos theory.

O exemplo do Efeito Borboleta remete para o facto de um bater de asas da mesma, alterar milionésimamente a pressão atmosférica do ar em redor de si. Essa pequeníssima alteração irá promover um efeito de dominó nas moléculas de ar em redor de si. E essa pequena alteração passado algum tempo, pode promover ao surgimento de modificações colossais de grandes dimensões. Agora podemos transpor este bater de asas da borboleta para todos os movimentos de todos os animais ao cimo da terra. E é isto o Efeito Borboleta. Agora não me venham com estórias de que o Efeito Borboleta é um filme coiso e tal. Porque alguma vez o que ele fazia se equivale a um bater de asas???

"Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different."