A system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole or a set of elements (often called 'components' ) and relationships which are different from relationships of the set or its elements to other elements or sets.
Fields that study the general properties of systems include systems theory, cybernetics, dynamical systems, thermodynamics, and complex systems. They investigate the abstract properties of systems' matter and organization, looking for concepts and principles that are independent of domain, substance, type, or temporal scale.
Some systems share common characteristics, including:
- A system has structure, it contains parts (or components) that are directly or indirectly related to each other;
- A system has behavior, it contains processes that transform inputs into outputs (material, energy or data);
- A system has interconnectivity: the parts and processes are connected by structural and/or behavioral relationships.
- A system's structure and behavior may be decomposed via subsystems and sub-processes to elementary parts and process steps.
The term system may also refer to a set of rules that governs structure and/or behavior. Alternatively, and usually in the context of complex social systems, the term institution is used to describe the set of rules that govern structure and/or behavior.
Read more about System: Etymology, History, System Concepts, Elements of System, Types of Systems, Analysis of Systems, Application of The System Concept
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20th century, Saussure introduced the idea of language as a static system of interconnected units, defined through the oppositions between them ... distinguishing language as an abstract system (langue) from language as a concrete manifestation of this system (parole) ...
... The laser guidance is reported to be virtually jam-proof and the system features automatic guidance to target, enabling evasive action immediately after missile launch ... The fire control system automatically shares all target information among the four Black Sharks of a typical flight in real time, allowing one helicopter to engage a target spotted by another, and the system ... be upgraded to laser guided with the proposed Ugroza system ...
... with the Pascal-based interfaces and development environments of the early Apple systems ... In addition, QuickDraw is a raster graphics system, which defines the pixel as its basic unit of graphical information ... This is in contrast to vector graphics systems, where graphics primitives are defined in mathematical terms and rasterized as required to the display ...
... As used in the Engler system (update, of 1964) and in the Wettstein system it consisted of only the single family ... In the Cronquist system it is used for an order (placed in subclass Commelinidae) and circumscribed as (1981) order Cyperales family Cyperaceae family Poaceae (or Gramineae) The APG II system, used here, assigns the ...
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control—”indoctrination” we might say—exercised through the mass media.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“I need not say what match I would touch, what system endeavor to blow up; but as I love my life, I would side with the light, and let the dark earth roll from under me, calling my mother and my brother to follow.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation; certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it: he cannot grow or mature.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)