Chaos theory attempts to identify, describe, and quantify order in apparently unpredictable and/or highly complex systems (i.e., atmospheric dynamics, weather systems, etc.) in which, out of seemingly random, disordered (e.g., aperiodic) processes there arise processes that are deterministic and predictable.

Complex phenomena are those generally regarded as having too many variables (or too many possible conditions or states) to yield to conventional quantitative analysis. The motion of molecules in swirling smoke or the turbulent hydraulics of a river current, for example, are systems that exhibit such chaotic complexity.

According to the laws of thermodynamics, all natural processes—when considering both system and surroundings—exhibit a tendency toward net movement from the ordered state to a more the chaotic (disordered) state. Conversely, according to some chaos theory models, chaotic, unpredictable, and irreversible processes may, evolve into or produce ordered states...