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Robert Rosen devoted a large part of his career, from 1958 [18] onwards, to developing a comprehensive theory of life as a self-organizing complex system, "closed to efficient causation". He defined a system component as "a unit of organization; a part with a function, i.e., a definite relation between part and whole."
A solution of a linear system is an assignment of values to the variables ,, …, such that each of the equations is satisfied. The set of all possible solutions is called the solution set. [5] A linear system may behave in any one of three possible ways: The system has infinitely many solutions.
In three-dimensional Euclidean space, these three planes represent solutions to linear equations, and their intersection represents the set of common solutions: in this case, a unique point. The blue line is the common solution to two of these equations. Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as:
A linear function is a polynomial function in which the variable x has degree at most one: [2] = +. Such a function is called linear because its graph, the set of all points (, ()) in the Cartesian plane, is a line. The coefficient a is called the slope of the function and of the line (see below).
In the term "linear equation", the word refers to the linearity of the polynomials involved. Because a function such as f ( x ) = a x + b {\displaystyle f(x)=ax+b} is defined by a linear polynomial in its argument, it is sometimes also referred to as being a "linear function", and the relationship between the argument and the function value may ...
This is an example of a non-linear functional. The Riemann integral is a linear functional on the vector space of functions defined on [a, b] that are Riemann-integrable from a to b. In mathematics, a functional is a certain type of function. The exact definition of the term varies depending on the subfield (and sometimes even the author).
In other words, if the input x(t) to a linear system is = where δ(t) represents the Dirac delta function, and the corresponding response y(t) of the system is (=) = (,) then the function h(t 2, t 1) is the time-varying impulse response of the system.
A constant function is also considered linear in this context, as it is a polynomial of degree zero or is the zero polynomial. Its graph, when there is only one variable, is a horizontal line. In this context, a function that is also a linear map (the other meaning) may be referred to as a homogeneous linear function or a linear form.