Which one of the following statements best illustrates the "butterfly effect" as it is described in the passage's third paragraph?

A system implemented to predict the weather worldwide for the next century is soon found to be inaccurate because it was supplied with the incomplete data

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Efforts to predict the result of a nuclear reaction fail because of indeterminacy inherent in the behaviour of subatomic particles

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The fossil record indicates that certain adaptations found in many organisms appeared soon after a past catastrophic event

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Scientific predictions about the future course of human history are found to be reasonably accurate once existing social theories are reconciled

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Solution

The correct option is A Efforts to predict the result of a nuclear reaction fail because of indeterminacy inherent in the behaviour of subatomic particles
In the third paragraph it is mentioned that, 'In Physics, the study of matter at the subatomic level showed that indeterminacy was not a transitory difficult to be overcome, but an essential physical principle'. Therefore option (b) is the appropriate choice.

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