Chaos: A mathematical adventure

"Everything flows. Everything is movement."

From the makers of Dimensions comes a great free online movie exploring dynamical systems, the butterfly effect and chaos theory by means of stunning visuals accompanied by a beautiful musical score. The dynamics of the weather, the three-body problem, Smale's horseshoe — it's all there, including cute lego athletes whizzing around a Lorenz attractor.

"The film is for everybody," says the mathematician Étienne Ghys, one of its creators. "It is split into nine chapters. The level [of the mathematics] continuously increases from chapter one to chapter nine and, in principle, one should not be frustrated if one does not watch the film until the very end." So whatever your level of maths there is something in it for you.

The field of dynamical systems was created by Henri Poincaré some 125 years ago. "Its purpose is to understand the motion of mechanical systems, like celestial bodies for instance, without solving any equations," says Ghys. "The trick is to use pictures to prove theorems: this is just what is needed for a movie."

Poincaré was indeed something of a pioneer in the use of pictures. "During the nineteenth century, especially in France, there was a period in maths during which pictures were considered a taboo," says Ghys. "They were supposed to be evil: the origin of mistakes. Under the influence of mathematicians like Poincaré mathematics, or at least some parts of maths, has become more visual and movies are indeed a wonderful tool to explain things. One picture is worth a thousand words!"

So just imagine how many words a whole movie can replace! Watch Chaos: a mathematical adventure.