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A system
System

System is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole.The concept of an "integrated whole" can also be stated in terms of a system embodying a set of relationships which are differentiated from relationships of the set to other elements, and from relationships between an element of the se...
 in a steady state has numerous properties that are unchanging in time. The concept of steady state has relevance in many fields, in particular thermodynamics
Thermodynamics

In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
. Steady state is a more general situation than dynamic equilibrium
Dynamic equilibrium

A system in dynamic equilibrium is a particular example of a system in a steady state. In a steady state the rate of inputs is equal to the rate of outputs so that the composition of the system is unchanging in time....
. If a system is in steady state, then the recently observed behavior of the system will continue into the future. In stochastic
Stochastic

Stochastic means random.A stochastic process is one whose behavior is non-Deterministic system in that a system's subsequent state is determined both by the process's predictable actions and by a random element....
 systems, the probabilities that various different states will be repeated will remain constant.

In many systems, steady state is not achieved until some time has elapsed after the system is started or initiated.






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A system
System

System is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole.The concept of an "integrated whole" can also be stated in terms of a system embodying a set of relationships which are differentiated from relationships of the set to other elements, and from relationships between an element of the se...
 in a steady state has numerous properties that are unchanging in time. The concept of steady state has relevance in many fields, in particular thermodynamics
Thermodynamics

In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
. Steady state is a more general situation than dynamic equilibrium
Dynamic equilibrium

A system in dynamic equilibrium is a particular example of a system in a steady state. In a steady state the rate of inputs is equal to the rate of outputs so that the composition of the system is unchanging in time....
. If a system is in steady state, then the recently observed behavior of the system will continue into the future. In stochastic
Stochastic

Stochastic means random.A stochastic process is one whose behavior is non-Deterministic system in that a system's subsequent state is determined both by the process's predictable actions and by a random element....
 systems, the probabilities that various different states will be repeated will remain constant.

In many systems, steady state is not achieved until some time has elapsed after the system is started or initiated. This initial situation is often identified as a transient
Transient

Transience means passing with time or is the state of being brief and short-lived. Something which has the property of transience is said to be transient, or often simply a transient or transient state....
 state, start-up or warm-up period.

While a dynamic equilibrium
Dynamic equilibrium

A system in dynamic equilibrium is a particular example of a system in a steady state. In a steady state the rate of inputs is equal to the rate of outputs so that the composition of the system is unchanging in time....
 occurs when two or more reversible processes occur at the same rate, and such a system can be said to be in steady state; a system that is in steady state may not necessarily be in a state of dynamic equilibrium
Dynamic equilibrium

A system in dynamic equilibrium is a particular example of a system in a steady state. In a steady state the rate of inputs is equal to the rate of outputs so that the composition of the system is unchanging in time....
, because some of the processes involved are not reversible.

For example: The flow of fluid
Fluid

A fluid is defined as a substance that continually deforms under an applied shear stress. All liquids and all gases are fluids. Fluids are a subset of the Phase and include liquids, gas, Plasma physics and, to some extent, plasticity ....
 through a tube, or electricity through a network, could be in a steady state because there is a constant flow of fluid, or electricity. Conversely, a tank which is being drained or filled with fluid would be an example of a system in transient
Transient

Transience means passing with time or is the state of being brief and short-lived. Something which has the property of transience is said to be transient, or often simply a transient or transient state....
 state, because the volume of fluid contained in it changes with time.

See also

  • Attractor
    Attractor

    An attractor is a set to which a dynamical system evolves after a long enough time. That is, points that get close enough to the attractor remain close even if slightly disturbed....
  • Carrying capacity
    Carrying capacity

    The supportable population of an organism, given the food, habitat, drinking water and other necessities available within an environment is known as the environment's carrying capacity for that organism....
  • Control theory
    Control theory

    Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics, that deals with the behavior of dynamical systems. The desired output of a system is called the reference....
  • Dynamical system
    Dynamical system

    The dynamical system concept is a mathematics formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space....
  • Ecological footprint
    Ecological footprint

    The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth's Ecology capacity to regenerate....
  • Economic growth
    Economic growth

    Economic growth is the increase in the amount of the goods and services produced by an economics over time. It is conventionally measured as the percent rate of increase in real gross domestic product, or real GDP....
  • Engine test stand
    Engine test stand

    An engine test stand is a facility used to develop, characterize and test engines. The facility, often offered as a product to automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer, allows engine operation in different operating regimes and offers measurement of several physical variables associated with the engine operation....
  • Equilibrium
    Equilibrium

    For the opposite, see disequilibrium.Equilibrium is the condition of a system in which competing influences are balanced and it may refer to:...
  • Evolutionary economics
    Evolutionary economics

    Evolutionary economics is a heterodox economics school of economics thought that is inspired by evolutionary biology. Much like mainstream economics, it stresses complex interdependencies, competition, growth, structural change, and resource constraints but differs in the approaches which are used to analyze these phenomena....
  • Growth curve
    Growth curve

    A growth curve in biology generally concerns a measured property such as population size, body height or biomass. Values for the measured property can be plotted on a graph of a function as a function of time; see Figure 1 for an example....
  • Herman Daly
    Herman Daly

    Herman Daly is an American ecological economist and professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy of University of Maryland, College Park in the United States....
  • Homeostasis
    Homeostasis

    Homeostasis is the property of a system, either open system or closed system, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition....
  • Limit-cycle
    Limit-cycle

    In mathematics, in the area of dynamical systems, a limit-cycle on a plane or a two-dimensional manifold is a closed trajectory in phase space having the property that at least one other trajectory spirals into it either as time approaches infinity or as time approaches minus-infinity....
  • Limits to Growth
    Limits to Growth

    The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome....
  • Population dynamics
    Population dynamics

    Population dynamics is the branch of life sciences that studies short- and long-term changes in the size and age composition of populations, and the biology and environment processes influencing those changes....
  • Simulation
    Simulation

    Simulation is the imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviors of a selected physical or abstract system....
  • State function
    State function

    In thermodynamics, a state function, state quantity, or a function of state, is a physical quantity of a system that depends only on the current Thermodynamic state, not on the way in which the system got to that state....
  • Steady State theory
    Steady State theory

    In physical cosmology, the Steady State theory is a model developed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others as an non-standard cosmology to the Big Bang theory ....
  • Systems theory
    Systems theory

    Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science and the study of the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specifically, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result....
  • Thermodynamic equilibrium
    Thermodynamic equilibrium

    In thermodynamics, a thermodynamics#Thermodynamic system is said to be in thermodynamic equilibrium when it is in thermal equilibrium, mechanical equilibrium, and chemical equilibrium....


Bibliography

Bronowski, J. (1973). The Ascent of Man, Little, Brown, pp. 348-349.