State Variable

A state variable is one of the set of variables that are used to describe the mathematical "state" of a dynamical system. Intuitively, the state of a system describes enough about the system to determine its future behaviour. Models that consist of coupled first-order differential equations are said to be in state-variable form.

Read more about State Variable:  Examples, Control Systems Engineering, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words state and/or variable:

    A solitary traveller can sleep from state to state, from day to night, from day to day, in the long womb of its controlled interior. It is the cradle that never stops rocking after the lullaby is over. It is the biggest sleeping tablet in the world, and no one need ever swallow the pill, for it swallows them.
    —Lisa St. Aubin de TerĂ¡n (b. 1953)

    Walked forth to ease my pain
    Along the shore of silver streaming Thames,
    Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems,
    Was painted all with variable flowers,
    Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)