[ Malcolm never tires of telling people about his field, even though it's more fun when he can use it to flirt with a pretty woman like he did with Dr. Sattler. Nevertheless, he launches into an explanation. ]

Chaos, chaos theory is the term we use. And it does apply, very good. In fact, it applies to, ah, any complex system with unpredictable elements. For example, the weather—the shorthand a lot of people use is the idea that a butterfly might flap its wings in Beijing, and in the US there's rain instead of sunshine. That's a simplified version of it, of course.