Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity , randomness , collective dynamics , hierarchy , and emergence .
50-587: Analysis ( pl. : analyses ) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (384–322 B.C. ), though analysis as a formal concept is a relatively recent development. The word comes from the Ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις ( analysis , "a breaking-up" or "an untying;" from ana- "up, throughout" and lysis "a loosening"). From it also comes
100-614: A considerable effect on the way a chemical analysis is conducted and the quality of its results. Analysis can be done manually or with a device . A) Qualitative Analysis : It is concerned with which components are in a given sample or compound. Example: Precipitation reaction B) Quantitative Analysis: It is to determine the quantity of individual component present in a given sample or compound. Example: To find concentration by uv-spectrophotometer. Chemists can use isotope analysis to assist analysts with issues in anthropology , archeology , food chemistry , forensics , geology , and
150-559: A defined system. Some definitions relate to the algorithmic basis for the expression of a complex phenomenon or model or mathematical expression, as later set out herein. One of the problems in addressing complexity issues has been formalizing the intuitive conceptual distinction between the large number of variances in relationships extant in random collections, and the sometimes large, but smaller, number of relationships between elements in systems where constraints (related to correlation of otherwise independent elements) simultaneously reduce
200-520: A differentiated structure that can, as a system, interact with other systems. The coordinated system manifests properties not carried or dictated by individual parts. The organized aspect of this form of complexity in regards to other systems, rather than the subject system, can be said to "emerge," without any "guiding hand". The number of parts does not have to be very large for a particular system to have emergent properties. A system of organized complexity may be understood in its properties (behavior among
250-432: A function, language or set (Burgin 2005). This shows that tools of activity can be an important factor of complexity. In several scientific fields, "complexity" has a precise meaning: Other fields introduce less precisely defined notions of complexity: Complexity has always been a part of our environment, and therefore many scientific fields have dealt with complex systems and phenomena. From one perspective, that which
300-540: A higher order of emergence greater than the sum of its parts. The study of these complex linkages at various scales is the main goal of complex systems theory . The intuitive criterion of complexity can be formulated as follows: a system would be more complex if more parts could be distinguished, and if more connections between them existed. As of 2010 , a number of approaches to characterizing complexity have been used in science ; Zayed et al. reflect many of these. Neil Johnson states that "even among scientists, there
350-420: A host of other questions of physical science . Analysts can discern the origins of natural and man-made isotopes in the study of environmental radioactivity . Analysts in the field of engineering look at requirements , structures , mechanisms, systems and dimensions . Electrical engineers analyse systems in electronics . Life cycles and system failures are broken down and studied by engineers. It
400-404: A problem may be computationally solvable in principle, in actual practice it may not be that simple. These problems might require large amounts of time or an inordinate amount of space. Computational complexity may be approached from many different aspects. Computational complexity can be investigated on the basis of time, memory or other resources used to solve the problem. Time and space are two of
450-412: A sizable number of factors which are interrelated into an organic whole". Weaver's 1948 paper has influenced subsequent thinking about complexity. The approaches that embody concepts of systems, multiple elements, multiple relational regimes, and state spaces might be summarized as implying that complexity arises from the number of distinguishable relational regimes (and their associated state spaces) in
500-440: A study of prosody (the formal analysis of meter) and phonic effects such as alliteration and rhyme , and cognitively in examination of the interplay of syntactic structures, figurative language, and other elements of the poem that work to produce its larger effects. Complexity The term is generally used to characterize something with many parts where those parts interact with each other in multiple ways, culminating in
550-469: A synthetic one, consisting of a reversion of all operations occurring in the analysis. Thus the aim of analysis was to aid in the discovery of synthetic proofs or solutions. James Gow uses a similar argument as Cajori, with the following clarification, in his A Short History of Greek Mathematics (1884): The synthetic proof proceeds by shewing that the proposed new truth involves certain admitted truths. An analytic proof begins by an assumption, upon which
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#1732772358283600-418: A synthetic reasoning is founded. The Greeks distinguished theoretic from problematic analysis. A theoretic analysis is of the following kind. To prove that A is B, assume first that A is B. If so, then, since B is C and C is D and D is E, therefore A is E. If this be known a falsity, A is not B. But if this be a known truth and all the intermediate propositions be convertible , then the reverse process, A
650-531: A synthetic solution of the problem. In statistics , the term analysis may refer to any method used for data analysis . Among the many such methods, some are: The field of intelligence employs analysts to break down and understand a wide array of questions. Intelligence agencies may use heuristics , inductive and deductive reasoning , social network analysis , dynamic network analysis , link analysis , and brainstorming to sort through problems they face. Military intelligence may explore issues through
700-413: Is E, E is D, D is C, C is B, therefore A is B, constitutes a synthetic proof of the original theorem. Problematic analysis is applied in all cases where it is proposed to construct a figure which is assumed to satisfy a given condition. The problem is then converted into some theorem which is involved in the condition and which is proved synthetically, and the steps of this synthetic proof taken backwards are
750-408: Is a relative property. For instance, for many functions (problems), such a computational complexity as time of computation is smaller when multitape Turing machines are used than when Turing machines with one tape are used. Random Access Machines allow one to even more decrease time complexity (Greenlaw and Hoover 1998: 226), while inductive Turing machines can decrease even the complexity class of
800-512: Is also looking at different factors incorporated within the design. Modern mathematical analysis is the study of infinite processes. It is the branch of mathematics that includes calculus. It can be applied in the study of classical concepts of mathematics, such as real numbers , complex variables , trigonometric functions , and algorithms , or of non-classical concepts like constructivism , harmonics , infinity , and vectors . Florian Cajori explains in A History of Mathematics (1893)
850-479: Is also sometimes used in information theory as indicative of complexity, but entropy is also high for randomness. In the case of complex systems, information fluctuation complexity was designed so as not to measure randomness as complex and has been useful in many applications. More recently, a complexity metric was developed for images that can avoid measuring noise as complex by using the minimum description length principle. There has also been interest in measuring
900-500: Is being increasingly used in the study of cosmology , big history , and cultural evolution with increasing granularity, as well as increasing quantification. Eric Chaisson has advanced a cosmoglogical complexity metric which he terms Energy Rate Density. This approach has been expanded in various works, most recently applied to measuring evolving complexity of nation-states and their growing cities. A History of Mathematics Too Many Requests If you report this error to
950-462: Is concerned with the complexity of strings of data . Complex strings are harder to compress. While intuition tells us that this may depend on the codec used to compress a string (a codec could be theoretically created in any arbitrary language, including one in which the very small command "X" could cause the computer to output a very complicated string like "18995316"), any two Turing-complete languages can be implemented in each other, meaning that
1000-479: Is no unique definition of complexity – and the scientific notion has traditionally been conveyed using particular examples..." Ultimately Johnson adopts the definition of "complexity science" as "the study of the phenomena which emerge from a collection of interacting objects". Definitions of complexity often depend on the concept of a " system " – a set of parts or elements that have relationships among them differentiated from relationships with other elements outside
1050-437: Is often said to be due to emergence and self-organization. Chaos theory has investigated the sensitivity of systems to variations in initial conditions as one cause of complex behaviour. Recent developments in artificial life , evolutionary computation and genetic algorithms have led to an increasing emphasis on complexity and complex adaptive systems. In social science , the study on the emergence of macro-properties from
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#17327723582831100-415: Is somehow complex – displaying variation without being random – is most worthy of interest given the rewards found in the depths of exploration. The use of the term complex is often confused with the term complicated. In today's systems, this is the difference between myriad connecting "stovepipes" and effective "integrated" solutions. This means that complex is the opposite of independent, while complicated
1150-403: Is the opposite of simple. While this has led some fields to come up with specific definitions of complexity, there is a more recent movement to regroup observations from different fields to study complexity in itself, whether it appears in anthills , human brains or social systems . One such interdisciplinary group of fields is relational order theories . The behavior of a complex system
1200-493: Is the property of a project which makes it difficult to understand, foresee, and keep under control its overall behavior, even when given reasonably complete information about the project system. Maik Maurer considers complexity as a reality in engineering. He proposed a methodology for managing complexity in systems engineering : 1. Define
1250-453: The applied approach, looking at individual language development and clinical issues. Literary criticism is the analysis of literature . The focus can be as diverse as the analysis of Homer or Freud . While not all literary-critical methods are primarily analytical in nature, the main approach to the teaching of literature in the west since the mid-twentieth century, literary formal analysis or close reading, is. This method, rooted in
1300-407: The history of words , the meaning of words and word combinations , sentence construction , basic construction beyond the sentence level , stylistics , and conversation . It examines the above using statistics and modeling , and semantics . It analyses language in context of anthropology , biology , evolution , geography , history , neurology , psychology , and sociology . It also takes
1350-486: The law of requisite variety , Boisot and McKelvey formulated the ‘Law of Requisite Complexity’, that holds that, in order to be efficaciously adaptive, the internal complexity of a system must match the external complexity it confronts. The application in project management of the Law of Requisite Complexity, as proposed by Stefan Morcov, is the analysis of positive, appropriate and negative complexity . Project complexity
1400-502: The travelling salesman problem , for example. It can be solved, as denoted in Big O notation , in time O ( n 2 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n^{2}2^{n})} (where n is the size of the network to visit – the number of cities the travelling salesman must visit exactly once). As the size of the network of cities grows, the time needed to find the route grows (more than) exponentially. Even though
1450-401: The academic movement labelled The New Criticism , approaches texts – chiefly short poems such as sonnets , which by virtue of their small size and significant complexity lend themselves well to this type of analysis – as units of discourse that can be understood in themselves, without reference to biographical or historical frameworks. This method of analysis breaks up the text linguistically in
1500-403: The classes, and measures of geometry, topology, and density of manifolds . For non-binary classification problems, instance hardness is a bottom-up approach that first seeks to identify instances that are likely to be misclassified (assumed to be the most complex). The characteristics of such instances are then measured using supervised measures such as the number of disagreeing neighbors or
1550-411: The complexity of classification problems in supervised machine learning . This can be useful in meta-learning to determine for which data sets filtering (or removing suspected noisy instances from the training set) is the most beneficial and could be expanded to other areas. For binary classification , such measures can consider the overlaps in feature values from differing classes, the separability of
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1600-507: The components of a particular chemical compound (qualitative analysis), to identify the proportions of components in a mixture (quantitative analysis), and to break down chemical processes and examine chemical reactions between elements of matter . For an example of its use, analysis of the concentration of elements is important in managing a nuclear reactor , so nuclear scientists will analyze neutron activation to develop discrete measurements within vast samples. A matrix can have
1650-436: The difference between modern and ancient mathematical analysis, as distinct from logical analysis, as follows: The terms synthesis and analysis are used in mathematics in a more special sense than in logic. In ancient mathematics they had a different meaning from what they now have. The oldest definition of mathematical analysis as opposed to synthesis is that given in [appended to] Euclid , XIII. 5, which in all probability
1700-413: The difficulty of solving them. Problems can be classified by complexity class according to the time it takes for an algorithm – usually a computer program – to solve them as a function of the problem size. Some problems are difficult to solve, while others are easy. For example, some difficult problems need algorithms that take an exponential amount of time in terms of the size of the problem to solve. Take
1750-492: The field). These systems are present in the research of a variety disciplines, including biology , economics , social studies and technology . Recently, complexity has become a natural domain of interest of real world socio-cognitive systems and emerging systemics research. Complex systems tend to be high- dimensional , non-linear, and difficult to model. In specific circumstances, they may exhibit low-dimensional behaviour. In information theory , algorithmic information theory
1800-445: The interactions of the parts in a "disorganized complexity" situation can be seen as largely random, the properties of the system as a whole can be understood by using probability and statistical methods. A prime example of disorganized complexity is a gas in a container, with the gas molecules as the parts. Some would suggest that a system of disorganized complexity may be compared with the (relative) simplicity of planetary orbits –
1850-472: The latter can be predicted by applying Newton's laws of motion . Of course, most real-world systems, including planetary orbits, eventually become theoretically unpredictable even using Newtonian dynamics; as discovered by modern chaos theory . Organized complexity, in Weaver's view, resides in nothing else than the non-random, or correlated, interaction between the parts. These correlated relationships create
1900-440: The length of two encodings in different languages will vary by at most the length of the "translation" language – which will end up being negligible for sufficiently large data strings. These algorithmic measures of complexity tend to assign high values to random noise . However, under a certain understanding of complexity, arguably the most intuitive one, random noise is meaningless and so not complex at all. Information entropy
1950-410: The likelihood of the assigned class label given the input features. A recent study based on molecular simulations and compliance constants describes molecular recognition as a phenomenon of organisation. Even for small molecules like carbohydrates , the recognition process can not be predicted or designed even assuming that each individual hydrogen bond 's strength is exactly known. Driving from
2000-427: The method. 5. Model the system. 6. Implement the method. Computational complexity theory is the study of the complexity of problems – that is,
2050-400: The micro-properties, also known as macro-micro view in sociology . The topic is commonly recognized as social complexity that is often related to the use of computer simulation in social science, i.e. computational sociology . Systems theory has long been concerned with the study of complex systems (in recent times, complexity theory and complex systems have also been used as names of
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2100-503: The most important and popular considerations when problems of complexity are analyzed. There exist a certain class of problems that although they are solvable in principle they require so much time or space that it is not practical to attempt to solve them. These problems are called intractable . There is another form of complexity called hierarchical complexity . It is orthogonal to the forms of complexity discussed so far, which are called horizontal complexity. The concept of complexity
2150-420: The properties) through modeling and simulation , particularly modeling and simulation with computers . An example of organized complexity is a city neighborhood as a living mechanism, with the neighborhood people among the system's parts. There are generally rules which can be invoked to explain the origin of complexity in a given system. The source of disorganized complexity is the large number of parts in
2200-631: The relational regime. Many definitions tend to postulate or assume that complexity expresses a condition of numerous elements in a system and numerous forms of relationships among the elements. However, what one sees as complex and what one sees as simple is relative and changes with time. Warren Weaver posited in 1948 two forms of complexity: disorganized complexity, and organized complexity. Phenomena of 'disorganized complexity' are treated using probability theory and statistical mechanics , while 'organized complexity' deals with phenomena that escape such approaches and confront "dealing simultaneously with
2250-476: The system of interest, and the lack of correlation between elements in the system. In the case of self-organizing living systems , usefully organized complexity comes from beneficially mutated organisms being selected to survive by their environment for their differential reproductive ability or at least success over inanimate matter or less organized complex organisms. See e.g. Robert Ulanowicz 's treatment of ecosystems . Complexity of an object or system
2300-510: The system. 2. Identify the type of complexity. 3. Determine the strategy. 4. Determine
2350-595: The use of game theory , Red Teaming , and wargaming . Signals intelligence applies cryptanalysis and frequency analysis to break codes and ciphers . Business intelligence applies theories of competitive intelligence analysis and competitor analysis to resolve questions in the marketplace . Law enforcement intelligence applies a number of theories in crime analysis . Linguistics explores individual languages and language in general. It breaks language down and analyses its component parts: theory , sounds and their meaning , utterance usage , word origins ,
2400-464: The variations from element independence and create distinguishable regimes of more-uniform, or correlated, relationships, or interactions. Weaver perceived and addressed this problem, in at least a preliminary way, in drawing a distinction between "disorganized complexity" and "organized complexity". In Weaver's view, disorganized complexity results from the particular system having a very large number of parts, say millions of parts, or many more. Though
2450-525: The word's plural, analyses . As a formal concept, the method has variously been ascribed to René Descartes ( Discourse on the Method ), and Galileo Galilei . It has also been ascribed to Isaac Newton , in the form of a practical method of physical discovery (which he did not name). The converse of analysis is synthesis : putting the pieces back together again in a new or different whole. The field of chemistry uses analysis in three ways: to identify
2500-460: Was framed by Eudoxus : "Analysis is the obtaining of the thing sought by assuming it and so reasoning up to an admitted truth; synthesis is the obtaining of the thing sought by reasoning up to the inference and proof of it." The analytic method is not conclusive, unless all operations involved in it are known to be reversible. To remove all doubt, the Greeks, as a rule, added to the analytic process
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