# Do you know the story \[time tourists\]? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408 "2012-12-18T07:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aiken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@Aiken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aiken)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/1 "2012-12-18T07:26:51Z")
Trying to find the author, and the title, of a story that I read many, many years ago - and yet it’s stuck with me ever since. I’d appreciate any suggestions. As I recall Time tourists were taken into the past where they could walk through various periods in history. The only proviso was that they had to stick to the path that had been laid out ahead of time (!). Of course one person stepped off the path and squashed a butterfly. When they returned there was relief when it was discovered that all was well and nothing appeared to have changed. Then they saw a sign on an office door … 😉 ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/2 "2012-12-18T07:29:26Z")
_A Sound of Thunder_ by Ray Bradbury. Adapted in 2005 into an awful movie. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/3 "2012-12-18T09:12:32Z")
A list of the places you can find this story: [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?61488](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?61488) ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/4 "2012-12-18T09:49:10Z")
A classic and all time great. And yes, do not, under and circumstances, watch the movie. I always thought that that’s where the term “Butterfly Effect” originated. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/5 "2012-12-18T11:10:08Z")
Apparently that’s the case: > **[Butterfly effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect)** > > In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. > The term is closely associated with the work of mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz. He noted that the butterfly effect is derived from the metaphorical example of the details of a tornado (the exact time of formation, the exact path taken) being influenced by minor pertu... The effect was named more than a decade after the story was published. ---
**Author:** ![benbo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@benbo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/benbo1)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/6 "2012-12-18T11:21:52Z")
Ironically enough, The Butterfly Effect was pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/7 "2012-12-18T11:57:24Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Apparently that’s the case: > > [Butterfly effect - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect) > > The effect was named more than a decade after the story was published. Ahh, no kidding. I rarely hear the phrase used in reference to the main idea of this particular story. I seem to always hear it related to chaos theory now, e.g. A butterfly flaps its wings in China causes a hurricane to form over the Atlantic, blah blah blah, the butterfly effect. Sort of the same idea, but not really. > [@benbo1](#): > > Ironically enough, The Butterfly Effect was pretty good. Yes it was. In fact there’s a thread about it in Cafe Society right now. It’s also named aptly, considering the nature of the plot being a riff of the core idea in _A Sound Of Thunder._ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/8 "2012-12-18T14:14:07Z")
Moved to Cafe Society, and title edited to indicate subject. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/9 "2012-12-18T21:29:56Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > And yes, do not, under and circumstances, watch the movie. Unless you enjoy yelling at your TV screen. “Wait, time machines are plug and play?” “Humans were not the ‘last to evolve’!” ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/10 "2012-12-18T23:53:40Z")
That sound you hear is my husband, Andy L (a/k/a “Ask the Guy Who’s Pretty Good at Identifying SF stories”) going “Arrgh!” that he didn’t get to post the answer first. Perhaps in an alternate timeline, he did get to post it first, but was distracted this time. \*A Sound of Husband… \* ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/11 "2012-12-19T00:41:26Z")
The Ray Bradbury Theater tv version isn’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/12 "2012-12-19T00:51:10Z")
Just to throw out another set of stories about time tourism: Try [Time Scout](http://www.amazon.com/Time-Scout-Robert-Asprin/dp/0671876988/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355878230&sr=1-1&keywords=time+scout). ---
**Author:** ![Aiken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@Aiken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aiken)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-story-time-tourists/644408/13 "2012-12-19T01:01:42Z")
Thanks all. Funnily enough as I was writing my query ‘The Butterfly Effect’ came to mind but, when I checked up on that and got references to a group and the film neither seemed to bear any relationship to the story. Thinking about it perhaps the group more than the film! This first timer is that impressed with the responses that were forthcoming that I’m going to rack my brains to see if I can come up with another book/story! Many thanks again.