BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

GROWTH CURVES 2)

← Back

Growth is a very general feature of processes and systems. It has however also quite diversified characteristics in different cases.

The following listing is a selection of the most useful growth curves related to specific types of processes:

1. Asymptotic: permanently slowing down growth

2. Chreodic: periodic (fluctuating) growth within a growth trend

3. Exponential: permanently accelerating growth (i.e. explosive)

4. Lineal: constant arithmetic proportional growth

5. Logarithmic: exponential growth defined by a characteristic exponent

6. Logistic: an accelerating growth phase preceeding a decelerating growth phase, due to a negative feedback

7. Normal (Gaussian): statistical distribution (Bell shaped curve) that can also represent a growth and decay sequence

8. Periodic: fluctuating growth or dynamic oscillations around a median. Frequently superposed on another curve

9. Semi-logarithmic: growth expressed in percentages (ratio scale)

Without being a growth phenomenon, celestial bodies orbits are also described by geometric curves in the time dimension. they can be hyperbolic, parabolic or elliptic. In this case, they are periodical, but their periodicity may be variable and unstable

→ Chaos; Criticality (self-organized; chaos, curve (Involving); Cycles; Fourier analysis; Power laws; Self similarity in the Weierstrass function; Vortex

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint