Chaotic Fishponds and Mirror Universes: The Strange Maths Behind the Modern World by Richard Elwes

Author:Richard Elwes [Elwes, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science & Math - Mathematics - Research
ISBN: 9781780875613
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2013-04-25T03:00:00+00:00

We can then feed this value back into the equation, to find the next rate of change:

And then extrapolate this speed into the future for another second, and so on. This process can be repeated as many times as necessary, and so a sequence of numerical predictions emerges.

Decades later, the large ENIAC machine (see All-conquering algorithms) would be put to use to prepare the first computerized weather forecasts. Over the years, this numerical approach to forecasting has revealed many familiar meteorological features, such as cyclones (the regions of low pressure around which winds circle) and anticyclones, the high-pressure equivalents. It has been discovered that, because of the Coriolis Effect, cyclones typically rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern, while anticyclones do the opposite.

Nowadays weather satellites provide us with masses of detailed data, while meteorologists employ the world’s most powerful supercomputers, along with the latest advances in numerical analysis, to solve the system of atmospheric equations. We all know prediction is not a perfect art; yet the increasing sophistication and accuracy of results is a testament to the considerable progress made. And the essential techniques used in making today’s forecasts began, appropriately enough, with a weather-obsessed Englishman, in the shape of Lewis Fry Richardson.

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