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
Other articles related to "system, systems":
... 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 ... The "dumb" rocket pods could be upgraded to laser guided with the proposed Ugroza system ...
... Decoherence can be modelled as a non-unitary process by which a system couples with its environment (although the combined system plus environment evolves in a unitary fashion) ... Thus the dynamics of the system alone, treated in isolation, are non-unitary and, as such, are represented by irreversible transformations acting on the system's Hilbert space ... Since the system's dynamics are represented by irreversible representations, then any information present in the quantum system can be lost to the environment ...
... century, Saussure introduced the idea of language as a static system of interconnected units, defined through the oppositions between them ... distinction, distinguishing language as an abstract system (langue) from language as a concrete manifestation of this system (parole) ...
... 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 resolution ...
... 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 ...
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“The twentieth-century artist who uses symbols is alienated because the system of symbols is a private one. After you have dealt with the symbols you are still private, you are still lonely, because you are not sure anyone will understand it except yourself. The ransom of privacy is that you are alone.”
—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)
“Social and scientific progress are assured, sir, once our great system of postpossession payments is in operation, not the installment plan, no sir, but a system of small postpossession payments that clinch the investment. No possible rational human wish unfulfilled. A man with a salary of fifty dollars a week can start payments on a Rolls-Royce, the Waldorf-Astoria, or a troupe of trained seals if he so desires.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“For the universe has three children, born at one time, which reappear, under different names, in every system of thought, whether they be called cause, operation, and effect; or, more poetically, Jove, Pluto, Neptune; or, theologically, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son; but which we will call here, the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer. These stand respectively for the love of truth, for the love of good, and for the love of beauty.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)