Skip to main content

This link is exclusively for students and staff members within this organisation.

Unauthorised use will lead to account termination.

Previous

Coastal landscapes: processes, systems and change

Next

Top ten don’ts for your independent investigation

new horizons: geographical ideas

Systems and equilibrium

Systems is a key concept in A-level geography. Here David Redfern spells out what it means, with examples

Figure 1 General characteristics of systems

How many students in your class own a smartphone? When you take delivery of a new phone it comes pre-loaded with various programs that allow it to operate.It may also have a few standard applications (apps): a browser, a calendar, a mail app. One of the key things that might have influenced your purchase of the phone is its storage capability — how many gigabytes (GB) it has available for your use.

Probably the first thing you do is to download more apps, such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram. These all have a size, given in megabytes (MB), that takes up some of the storage. They also operate as part of a wider system, connecting with similar apps on the phones of your friends and family. Then you may decide to output some text messages, or make phone calls, or post images on to social media.

Your organisation does not have access to this article.

Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise

Subscribe

Previous

Coastal landscapes: processes, systems and change

Next

Top ten don’ts for your independent investigation

Related articles: