The Margin of Safety
The margin of safety in engineering refers to the ability of a system to withstand loads greater than expected. The main idea in this principle is to protect yourself from unforeseen circumstances and challenges by building a buffer between your expectations and what could happen in reality.
Normal Distribution
The principle of a normal distribution is commonly used in statistics. This law is also used in social sciences to represent random variables whose distribution is not known. The central limit theorem states that averages of observed samples converge in distribution to the normal. Physical quantities that are expected to be the sum of many independent processes often have a normal distribution.
Power Laws
Stipulates that changes in one quantity triggers a proportional change in the next quantity regardless of the size of the quantities. One will always vary proportionately as the power of the second.
Redundancy
In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components of a system with the purpose of increasing the reliability of the system. This duplication is usually in the form of a backup that is geared towards improving the performance of the system.
Redundancy has two main forms. These are passive and active redundancy. Passive redundancy uses excess capacity to reduce the impact of failure on the components. On the other hand, active redundancy eliminates the decline in performance by monitoring the performance of individual devices.
Regression to the Mean
Long deviations from the average will tend to return to the average mean with the increase in the size of the sample under observation. Regression to the mean can deceive us into confusing statistical probabilities with causal probabilities.
Algorithms
An algorithm is an automated set of rules defining a series of steps or procedures that result in the desired outcome. It is stated in the form of If- then statements. Algorithms are widely used in computing but are also evident in biological systems.
Network Effects
A network’s value increases with the addition of nodes to the network. This principle is referred to as the network effect. It stipulates that some concepts are only as useful as their ability to connect with other concepts to increase functionality. This model also has very wide applications in various systems that require linkages for optimum performance.
