For example, the population of an animal in the wild depends on several different factors: weather and predators, disease and competition for resources. Similarly, a complex result must come from a complex cause. If predators were introduced to a pond of goldfish, they’d eat up the population until there weren’t enough left for them to survive on. A pendulum would swing back and forth in regular patterns. He believed that if you remove all outside influences, a system would settle into its natural state. These basic laws made him believe that everything happens for a reason and as a result, events are predictable in nature. For example, Newton stated that if an object is moving it will continue to move unless something stops it and that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The book described the basic principles of classical mechanics, which govern the activity of physical objects. Sir Isaac Newton wrote a book called the Principia Mathematica in 1687. However, the concept of causality has been challenged by a new force that scientists have had to consider. This assumption formed the bedrock for an age of enlightenment that changed how humans understand themselves and their world. Humans can observe events and make sense of them because they possess the ability to discern cause and effect relationships in nature. For centuries, scientists have assumed that the natural world is governed by basic principles of causality.

Chaos theory gleick