• Question: my favourite theory is the butterfly effect because i find it very interesting,what is your favourite theory and why?

    Asked by ALFIE! to David, Eva, Kate, Nicholas, Rachel on 9 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Rachel McMullan

      Rachel McMullan answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      I’m a biologist so it has to be the theory of evolution. Without evolution my work on worms wouldn’t be very useful because evolution means that worms and humans have a lot in common.

    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 11 Nov 2015:

      Hey Alfie,

      Check out the many worlds theory: in this theory every time you make a choice or decision, a whole new universe is made where you made the other decision! At the moment we don’t know how to test it though, it’s just a possibility.
      It works nicely with the butterfly effect too – a butterfly can flap its wings and create a universe where a storm happens and another where it there is no storm.
      Here are some great short videos explaining more:

    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Ah a bit of chaos theory.

      One my favourite theories is the Mpemba Effect. The theory was named after Erasto Mpemba who was a 3rd year secondary school student in Tanzania in 1969 when he questioned why his ice-cream made with boiling water cooled down quicker than his friends ice-cream made with water at room temperature. His teachers told him he was confused! He wasn’t happy with this so he kept studying it until he proved that hot water does freeze quicker than cold water.

      Scientists have struggled for a long time to work out why this happens and in 2012 The Royal Society of Chemistry started a competition to find the best and most creative explanation for it.

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