1.1.1 Systems and Synergy

What do these, and the previous pictures, have in common?

They are all Systems

What is the meaning of the word system?

A system is something that:

Is made up of individual component parts

that work together to perform a particular function

A bicycle is an example of a system

But if the parts of the bicycle are piled up in the middle of the room, they cease to work together and thus stop being a system

So a system could be...?

All systems!! A building a flower an atom a political party a car your body furniture an electric circuit

One of the most fascinating characteristics of any and all structures is the characteristic called SYNERGY

SYNERGY

SYNERGY Synergy is: The only word in

any language that describes the behaviour of systems in this way:

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

Another way to say this is : Even if you know all

the parts that make up a system you still cannot know or even predict how the whole system is going to behave or work.

Can you give an example of this??

The Human Body If you take all the stuff

that makes up a person, you would find that we are made up of:

Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Water, Calcium, Sodium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Iron and many other elements. The total cost of all of these things at the store is about……????

That’s right. About $ 1.00.

You could never be able to explain YOUR behaviour or all the things that YOU do, or all the different aspects of you, if you looked at just the stuff that makes you up. Never in a million years.

This is what we mean by SYNERGY.

$ 1.00

Even if you looked at the next level up…the Cell

Even if you knew what all the cells in your body do, you still could not describe YOU.

Something very unique and new and unpredictable happens when the parts of a system work together.

Bring different ideas Together

One of the best places to find ideas for structural systems is in NATURE.

Nature always uses the most economical, efficient and reliable structural systems

Ecological Systems follow the laws of synergy as well.

It is the interrelationships between the parts that produces the behaviour of the whole.

Ecosystems Ecological Systems

Two basic processes must occur in an ecosystem:

1. A cycling of chemical elements.2. Flow of energy.

TRANSFERS: normally flow through a system and involve a change in location.TRANSFORMATIONS: lead to an interaction within a system in the formation of a new end product, or involve a change of state.

Components of a system:1.Inputs such as

energy or matter. Calories

Protein

Human

Body

2. Flows of matter or energy within the systems at certain rates.

Human

Metabolis

m

Calories

Protein

3.Outputs of certain forms of matter or energy that flow out of the system into sinks in the environment.

Calories

Protein

Human

Metabolis

m

WasteHeat

WasteMatter

4. Storage areas in which energy or matter can accumulate for various lengths of time before being released.

Calories

Protein

Human

Metabolis

m• fat • insulation • muscle fiber• hair, nails• enzymes

Inputs and Outputs

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