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Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: equilibrium


An equilibrium is a phenomenon that occurs in closed systems where two interacting variables feed back on each other to produce a net zero effect. If I pay for one dinner and you pay for the next, our contributions to our common dinners are in equilibrium. Equilibria are everywhere in nature, but are rarely perfect, because very few systems are truly closed off from the rest of the world.

This simulation uses equilibria mainly in the cycling of nutrients between different chemical forms in the soil. An "equilibrium flow" or "equilibrium rate" is the speed at which the system returns to the equilibrium state after perturbations. In our eating-out example, equilibrium rate is how guilty I feel about your paying twice as much as usual the last time you paid for dinner.

How it works:
nutrient cycling

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Updated: March 10, 1999. Questions/comments on site to webmaster@kurtz-fernhout.com.
Copyright © 1998, 1999 Paul D. Fernhout & Cynthia F. Kurtz.