# The Extent of the Butterfly Effect

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-extent-of-the-butterfly-effect/562902>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 4, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-extent-of-the-butterfly-effect/562902 "2010-12-04T03:47:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-extent-of-the-butterfly-effect/562902/1 "2010-12-04T03:47:35Z")

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I am interested in alternate history but I find it ridiculous when the writers ignore the butterfly effect and have FDR in a TL that diverged during the Civil War twenty years before Roosevelt was born. Do the writers realize the conception of FDR would not happen in the exact same way in happened in our world? Even if say the divergence happened on May 1st and a man named John Smith was conceived that night-suppose Smith’s father read the newspaper that night instead of procreating with his wife-everything changes! Thus how strong do you think the butterfly effect is once one thing changes?

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