# The lost horseshoe explaining the theory of the chaos



## franknagy

The lucky horseshoe is well known.
Here is an opposite example.
The following children's speach contains the essence of the chaos theory in six lines.
Do you know its counterpart in Polish?

Regards
           Frank



Egy szeg miatt a patkó elveszett,Because of a nail the horseshoe has lost,a patkó miatt a ló is elveszett,because of the horseshoe the horse also has lost,a ló miatt a huszár elveszett,because of the horse the hussar has lost,a huszár miatt a csata elveszett,because of the hussar the battle has lost,a csata miatt az *ország* elveszett.because of the battle the *country* has lost.
Lám, mit tesz egy icipici szeg!See, how much does a teeny-weeny nail make!


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## Ben Jamin

Could make it clear what kind of counterpart you are looking for?


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## dreamlike

I'm not aware of any similar story in Polish, Frank, and I'd be surprised to find out there is one! 

By the way, your query is perfectly clear to me.


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## BezierCurve

I never heard of it, yet it turns out that it's not completely unknown to Poles (see reply #7): http://redakcjapartyzant.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%85%D0%B0-%D1%85%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0-pascha-chrystusowa/


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## Thomas1

There is a short poem for children, _Gwóźdź i podkowa__,_ which takes up the subject in question:_Raz gwoździa zabrakło, więc spadła podkowa_
_Gdy spadła podkowa, okulał koń.
  Pod koniem kulawym śmierć znalazł dowódca,
  Żołnierze w rozsypce rzucają broń.
  Wróg wtargnął do miasta, podpalił je później
  Dlatego, że gwoździa zabrakło raz w kuźni. _​ (J. Minkiewicz wg Samuela Marszaka, 2000 Rymów, NK 1979) 
Source: http://priveee.dyndns.org/Kippin/KOD BIBLII/135-10.htm​
It is, however, a translation of the Russian original by Samuil Marshak. I don't think the poem commonly known in Poland, though.

The English language offers, in its turn, a rhyme _For Want of a Nail_ (there are at least a few versions of it).

I think that the concept in question is more likely to be known by many Poles as 'efekt motyla' (the butterfly effect). At least this was what occured to me while I was reading the thread.


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## franknagy

BezierCurve said:


> I never heard of it, yet it turns out that it's not completely unknown to Poles (see reply #7): http://redakcjapartyzant.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/пасха-христова-pascha-chrystusowa/



Respected BezierCurve:
Please quote a sentence to help me to find it.

Thx
     Frank


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## BezierCurve

I'm sorry, this is the one:

“Przez zgubiony gwóźdź zginęła podkowa, przez zgubioną podkowę zginął koń; przez zgubionego konia zginął jeździec, zwyciężony i zabity przez wroga – a wszystko to z powodu zaniedbania jednego gwoździa w podkowie”

Legend: nail, horseshoe, horse, rider.


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## franknagy

Hi,
*Indeed it is the butterfly effect.
*Once upon a time I have read a scifi anthology where the time travellers visiting the dinos were warned not to step off the narrow metallic pavement. A yankee was staring at the dinos and trampled down a butterfly. 
When he arrived back to his era he found a completely different spelling and political system in the USA.
I think the writer neglected the 
Novikov self-consistency principle or he/she wanted to horrify the readers.

Thank you for the verses in Polish and English.
Whose was the original idea? I do not mind.

Regards
   Frank


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