Feedback is a process in which the output from a system is fed back into the system and affects the way the system itself behaves.
When there is positive feedback, a small change in the output of a system causes the system to keep changing in the same way. Positive feedback leads to more and more of the same output, or less and less. Either way, there is a runaway, unstable situation that continues unless something else happens and stops it. For example, suppose someone strikes a match in a room full of flammable vapour. The vapour around the match combusts (burns), reacting with oxygen and raising the temperature, which increases the rate of combustion, which further raises the temperature, which increases the reaction rate, and so on — an explosive runaway reaction in a chemical system.
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