| |
A temporary change is a change that reverts back to its original state. This is a common occurrence that has several interesting variations:Irresistible ForcesResisting a force without enough sustained energy to resist forever.Change | Return | Jump in the air | Fall to earth | Freeze an ice cube | Warms to room temperature | Boil water | Cools to room temperature | Clothes become wet | Clothes dry in the air | Stretch an elastic | Returns to original shape |
Return to EquilibriumEquilibrium is the point where competing forces are balanced. Changes that put a system out of equilibrium are likely to be temporary. For example, supply and demand in a market where a sudden spike in demand for a good causes shortages. This change would tend to be temporary as suppliers have incentive to increase supply to meet demand.Change | Return | Shortage | Suppliers increase supply to meet demand | Surplus | Suppliers decrease supply to clear the surplus | Get dizzy or off balance | Recover your balance | Get a cold | Heal |
Deviation From TrendA process that is strongly running in one direction that temporarily goes in the other direction. For example, the stock of a mismanaged company that is destined to go bankrupt may temporarily go up for a period of time with a long term trend that will drive the stock to zero.Long Term Trend | Deviation | Climate change | Weather variations | Stock market will be much higher in future | Stock market goes down | Company will eventually go bankrupt | Company stock goes up | Air pollution getting worse in a city | Fresh air from a pleasant wind |
Regression Toward the MeanRegression toward the mean is the tendency for unusual results to become closer to average with time.Change | Revision to Mean | Have a bad day | Things get better with time. | Have a good day | Bad days also arrive with time. | Investor dramatically outperforms market | Investors that outperform the market may be lucky or be taking large risks such that their results will be more average in the long term. |
Stable SystemsSystems such as a society, machine or organism often have stability built into them. For example, if you are hot your body may sweat to bring down your core temperature.Change | Return | Overflowing river system | River system eventually drains | Human gets a headache | The body typically tries to return to normal | A society has an economic recession | Policy makers decrease interest rates and flush banks with liquidity to try to stimulate economic activity. | A room becomes cold | An automated heating, cooling and ventilation system begins to heat the room. |
Human BehaviorHuman's commonly seek stability and may work to try to undo changes that occur.Change | Human Action | Fall down | Get up | Bicycle breaks down | Fix bicycle | Fired from job | Get a new job |
Ultimate FateUltimate fate is the way that something will end. From a philosophical point of view, it could be argued that many or most changes are temporary. For example, the Big Crunch theory of the ultimate fate of the universe suggests that the universe will eventually return to a state similar to the start of the Big Bang. If this is true, any change that has ever happened will ultimately be temporary.
Change
This is the complete list of articles we have written about change.
If you enjoyed this page, please consider bookmarking Simplicable.
An overview of physical change with examples.
The common types of change.
A vocabulary for describing change.
An overview of change management with examples.
The definition of stability with examples.
The definition of intentions with examples.
An overview of chemical change with examples.
A list of common business changes.
The definition of discontinuous change with examples.
An overview of organizational change with examples.
A list of sciences.
An overview of the common types of research design.
An a-z list of physical properties with basic explanations of each.
An overview of natural vs man-made things with examples.
An overview of common science topics.
An overview of the common types of engineering.
A list of common animals.
TrendingThe most popular articles on Simplicable in the past day.
Recent posts or updates on Simplicable.
Site Map
© 2010-2023 Simplicable. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of materials found on this site, in any form, without explicit permission is prohibited.
View credits & copyrights or citation information for this page.
|