Editing 1399: Chaos

{{comic
| number    = 1399
| date      = July 25, 2014
| title     = Chaos
| image     = chaos.png
| titletext = Although the oral exam for the doctorate was just 'can you do that weird laugh?'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic pokes fun at the 1993 film ''{{w|Jurassic_Park_(film)|Jurassic Park}}'', which features a theme park filled with cloned dinosaurs. In the film, chaos ensues when all the dinosaurs escape and begin terrorizing their creators. The list of chaos topics, {{w|phase space}}, {{w|Nonlinear system|nonlinear equations}}, and {{w|Attractor|strange attractors}}, comes directly from the movie, in which [http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Ian_Malcolm Dr. Ian Malcolm] (portrayed by Jeff Goldblum), a mathematician and {{w|Chaos theory|chaos theorist}} brought in to inspect the park prior to its grand opening, suggests that the dinosaurs' escaping could have been predicted based on mathematical chaos models.

Cueball explains that although he has also studied chaos theory, he has never seen where chaos models predict that dinosaurs would escape. Cueball's confusion highlights the contrast between the mathematical definition of chaos – shown in the graphs on the whiteboard – and its common meaning – a state of utter confusion or disorder (as illustrated in the film).

The whiteboard shows a {{w|bifurcation diagram}} of the {{w|logistic map}} (one of the simplest examples of the mathematical concept of chaos, also featured in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/105/ what-if 105]) and a {{w|dragon curve}}, which appeared on the section title pages of the novel ''Jurassic Park'', upon which the film was based.

The title text references the scene in ''Jurassic Park'' in which Goldblum, as Malcolm, while making small talk with Drs. Alan Grant (portrayed by Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (portrayed by Laura Dern) during the helicopter ride to the park, responds to a remark with an  [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlOx9738iyw odd-sounding laugh]. The laugh has gained minor Internet notoriety after being used as the central sample in at least one [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJelEXaPhJ8 remix].

The comic may be timely, as a remastered 3-D version of the film was released in April 2013, and the {{w|Jurassic World|fourth installment}} (and the first of a new planned trilogy) of the ''Jurassic Park'' film series, ''Jurassic World'', was released in June 2015.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is staring at a whiteboard covered with equations and graphs.]
:Cueball: For two decades, I've studied phase space, nonlinear equations, and strange attractors.
:[Cueball keeps staring at a whiteboard covered with equations and graphs for two more panels before in the third panel he exclaims:]
:Cueball: And there is ''nothing'' in here about dinosaurs escaping.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]