strange attractor
noun
mathematics
: the state of a mathematically chaotic system toward which the system trends : the attractor of a mathematically chaotic system
Unlike the randomness generated by a system with many variables, chaos has its own pattern, a peculiar kind of order. This pattern is known whimsically as a strange attractor, because the chaotic system seems to be strangely attracted to an ideal behavior.—Gary Taubes, Discover, May 1989
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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