A town completely isolated from the rest of the world would constitute a closed system.
A system is a module of elements that are interrelated and that maintain interactions with each other. Closed , for its part, is an adjective that can be used with reference to what is hermetic or strict.
The idea of a closed system is used above all in physics and chemistry to name the set of elements that is isolated from the environment and that does not develop interactions with agents that are located outside of it.
The closed system, in this way, has no connections with the external. The values of its variables depend only on the factors contained in the system itself since it does not maintain relationships nor is influenced by the outside.
Characteristics of a closed system
According to its formal definition, the closed system is considered of a physical type, and this is defined as an aggregate of entities or material objects that evidence a mathematical model, an interaction or a connection between its parts of a causal type. This introduces us to another concept, that of a mathematical model, which is defined below for clarity.
The mathematical model belongs to applied sciences and is used to relate variables, facts or parameters, among other things, and analyze the way in which complex systems behave when facing situations that are not easy to observe in reality.
Since the closed system is, in essence, a physical system, it also has the following characteristics attributed to the latter:
* can be located in space and time;
* has a physical state (each situation or form that can be distinguished from the system through the study of its properties) whose definition is linked to an evolution over time;
* It is possible to associate it with a physical quantity called energy.
A closed system does not exchange energy or matter with the environment.
Most important properties
Among the most notable properties of a closed system is the fact that its equations of motion only depend on factors and variables that belong to it. The equation of motion belongs to the field of physics and is defined as a formulation that describes the evolution of a physical system in space through time .
This lack of connection between what happens within a closed system and its environment is true even when it is desired to choose the point in time that will act as the origin in a temporal evolution equation.
It must be taken into account that the closed system does not exchange matter or energy with the environment , unlike the open system that does carry out these exchanges. In the field of thermodynamics , however, a distinction is usually made between a closed system (which does not exchange matter, although it does exchange energy ) and an isolated system (without exchanges of any kind).
It is important to note that closed systems can be separated from the environment in a physical (real) or symbolic (theoretical) way. When the closed system is a theoretical construction, it usually serves for the development of studies, research and theories .
Closed system example
An example of a closed system would be a hypothetical town isolated from the rest of the world . The population does not leave its limits, while other people do not enter either. Within said town, food is produced, energy is obtained and all needs are satisfied without ties to other locations. This town, in short, constitutes a closed system.
Although this example is almost impossible to find in reality, there are congregations of people who try to avoid any link with the outside world , and go so far as to configure systems that could be considered closed, although perhaps with minimal exceptions. This has negative and positive consequences: isolation deprives them of enriching themselves with the advances of the rest of humanity, but it also protects them from the corruption that abounds outside their system.