re in balance. A group of stones which do not touch one another are not a system, because there is no interaction. A system can be modeled. Which means another system which supposedly replicates the behavior ofthe original system can be created. Theoretically, one can take a second group of stones which are the same weight, shape, and density of the first group, pile them in the same way as the first group, and predict that they will fall into a new configuration that is the same as the first group. Or a mathematical representation can be made of the stones through application of Newton's law of gravity, to predict how future piles of the same type - and of different types of stones - will interact. Mathematical modeling is the key, but not the only modeling process used for systems. The word nonlinear has to do with understanding mathematical models used to describe systems. Before the growth of interest in nonlinear systems, most models were analyzed as though they were linear systems meaning that when the mathematical formulas representing the behavior of the systems were put into a graph form, the results looked like a straight line. Newton used calculus as a mathematical method for showing change in systems within the context of straight lines. And statistics is a process of converting what is usually nonlinear data into a linear format for analysis. Linear systems are the classic scientific system and have been used for hundreds of years, they are not complex, and they are easy to work with because they are very predictable. For example, you would consider a factory a linear system. If more inventory is added to the factory, or more employees are hired, it would stand to reason that more pieces produced by the factory by a significant amount. By changing what goes into a system we should be able to tell what comes out of it. But as any factory manager knows, factories don't actually work that way. If the amount of people, the inve...
