The double pendulum, seen above being released from the same point ten times, follows a path that is sensitively dependant on its initial conditions. Minuscule inconsistencies in the pendulum's release are magnified throughout its fall. The highly varying paths converge again as they come to a point of equilibrium, the end of their journey.

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A single pendulum loses its predictability with the addition of only one new component. Systems (such as human life and human civilization) that are dependant on innumerable components can exist in a similar - but even more complex - state of chaos.