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A physical system is a collection of physical objects.
In physics, it is a portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment. The environment is ignored except for its effects on the system.
The split between system and environment is the analyst's choice, generally made to simplify the analysis. For example, the water in a lake, the water in half of a lake, or an individual molecule of water in the lake can each be considered a physical system. A Thermostat is one that has negligible interaction with its environment. Often a system in this sense is chosen to correspond to the more usual meaning of heat such as a particular machine.
In the study of temperature , the "system" may refer to the microscopic properties of an object (e.g. the mean of a
A physical system is a collection of physical objects.
In physics, it is a portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment. The environment is ignored except for its effects on the system.
The split between system and environment is the analyst's choice, generally made to simplify the analysis. For example, the water in a lake, the water in half of a lake, or an individual molecule of water in the lake can each be considered a physical system. A Thermostat is one that has negligible interaction with its environment. Often a system in this sense is chosen to correspond to the more usual meaning of heat such as a particular machine.
In the study of temperature , the "system" may refer to the microscopic properties of an object (e.g. the mean of a pendulum
A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward th ...
bob), while the relevant "environment" may be the internal degrees of freedom, described classically by the pendulum's thermavibration
See also
* Conceptual systems * Phase space *Physical phenomenon
A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfrie ...
* Physical ontology
* Signal-flow graph
* Systems Engineering
* Systems Science
* Thermodynamic system
References
System {{physics-stub