Properties of a system

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Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. Which statement describes a property of a system?

A A characteristic of the system as a whole, such as its purpose

B A characteristic of one single part, such as a button's colour

2. A school canteen app lets students pre-order lunch so queues are shorter. What is this an example of?

A An emergent behaviour of the system

B The purpose of the system

3. Which is a component of an online ticketing system?

A A database that stores bookings

B The goal of selling tickets quickly

4. Which describes interaction between components?

A The login form is blue with white text

B The login form sends a username to the database to be checked

5. Emergent behaviour in a system is behaviour that...

A Appears from the parts working together and no single part has alone

B Is programmed into one specific part of the system

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1system properties		AThe traits of a system as a whole, such as its purpose, its components and how they interact, rather than the traits of any single part
2emergent behaviour		Bpurpose = 'Let students pre-order and pay for lunch'
3The purpose of a school canteen ordering system is to let students order and pay for lunch before break		CLists a single component as the system's properties. System properties describe the whole system (purpose, components, interactions), not one part.
4Components interact when data produced by one part is passed to another part of the system		Dpayment_total = calculate_total(cart_items)
5properties = ['battery'] # one part only		EA behaviour that appears only when the parts of a system work together, which no single part could produce alone
6emergent = screen_brightness # one part's setting		FTreats a setting of one component as emergent behaviour. Emergent behaviour comes from parts interacting, not from a single part alone.

Definitions

system properties

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

system = {"_______": "Sell tickets online"}

__________ = ["app", "server", "database"]

components = ["app", "server", "database"] print(___(components))

interactions = [("app", "server")] interactions.______(("server", "database"))

system = {} system["________"] = "Live seat map"

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A purpose = "Sell tickets

B parts = ["web", "database"]

C print(purpose)

Question 2

A parts = ["sensor" "alarm"]

B purpose = "Detect smoke"

C print(len(parts))

Question 3

A parts = ["cart", "payment"]

B for p in parts:

C print(p)

D print("Parts:", len(parts)

Question 4

A engine = 1

B wheels = 1

C car_works = engine or wheels

D print(car_works)

Question 5

A parts = ["pump", "tap"]

B purpose = "Supply water"

C flow = "pump -> tap"

D if len(parts) > 1

E print(flow)

Answer Key

Properties of a system

Section A: Quick Questions

A — A characteristic of the system as a whole, such as its purpose

B — The purpose of the system

A — A database that stores bookings

B — The login form sends a username to the database to be checked

A — Appears from the parts working together and no single part has alone

Section B: Match the Pairs

system properties → The traits of a system as a whole, such as its purpose, its components and how they interact, rather than the traits of any single part

emergent behaviour → A behaviour that appears only when the parts of a system work together, which no single part could produce alone

The purpose of a school canteen ordering system is to let students order and pay for lunch before break → purpose = 'Let students pre-order and pay for lunch'

Components interact when data produced by one part is passed to another part of the system → payment_total = calculate_total(cart_items)

properties = ['battery'] # one part only → Lists a single component as the system's properties. System properties describe the whole system (purpose, components, interactions), not one part.

emergent = screen_brightness # one part's setting → Treats a setting of one component as emergent behaviour. Emergent behaviour comes from parts interacting, not from a single part alone.

Section C: Definitions

system properties — The traits of a system as a whole: its purpose, its components and how they interact, and emergent behaviour that no single part has alone.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

system = {"purpose": "Sell tickets online"}

components = ["app", "server", "database"]

components = ["app", "server", "database"]
print(len(components))

interactions = [("app", "server")]
interactions.append(("server", "database"))

system = {}
system["emergent"] = "Live seat map"

Section E: Spot the Error

A — The string is missing its closing quote. A system's purpose is a statement of what it is for, so it must be written as a complete string: purpose = "Sell tickets".

A — The comma between list items is missing. The components of the system must be separate items: ["sensor", "alarm"].

D — The closing bracket of print() is missing. The line should be print("Parts:", len(parts)) so it reports how many components the system has.

C — A car's ability to drive is emergent behaviour: it needs the engine AND the wheels working together. Using 'or' treats one part alone as enough. It should be 'and'.

D — The if statement is missing its colon. It should be if len(parts) > 1: so the interaction between parts is only shown when there is more than one component.