124 // Apres-le-Ski

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called a strange attractor. If you plotted random data that way, you'd just get a fuzzy mess.

The Lorenz attractor, a geometric representation of Lorenz's

calculations.

Chaos may seem a useless phenomenon, on the grounds that it prevents practical predictions. Even is this objection were correct, chaos would still exist. The real world is not obliged to behave in ways that are convenient for humans. As it happens, there are ways to make use of chaos. For a time, a Japanese company marketed a chaotic dishwasher, with two rotary arms spraying water on its contents. The resulting irregular spray cleaned the dishes better than the regular spray from a single rotating arm would have done.

And, of course, a dishwasher based on chaos theory was obviously very scientific and advanced. The marketing people

........................................... must have loved it.

` Apres-le-Ski

` The little-known Alpine village of Apres-le-Ski is situated in a deep mountain valley with vertical cliffs on both sides. The cliffs are 600 metres high on one side and 400 metres high on the other. A cable car runs from the foot of each cliff to the top of the

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