Feedback is what a system does with a change once it has started.
Feedback A system’s response to a change, which either adds to it or opposes it.
Step 1: Something to Notice
Watch first. The explanation comes later.
Melting ice exposes dark water, which absorbs more sunlight, which melts more ice — and the loop has no natural stopping point.
What decides whether a loop settles or runs away?
Step 2: Find Out
Isolate the loop type and run the same nudge through both.
Step 1 — Predict
Which kind of feedback destabilises a system?
Choose what you think will happen. You cannot see the experiment until you do — guessing first is what makes it worth watching.
Step 3: So Here Is Why
Now the explanation, after you have seen it happen.
Positive feedback amplifies
The response adds to the change, so the departure grows each cycle.
Negative feedback damps
The response opposes the change, so the system returns toward where it began.
The names describe the sign, not the value
Negative feedback holds your body at 37°C. Positive feedback is the worrying one.
A tipping point is a change of regime
Where a damping loop is overwhelmed and an amplifying one takes over.
Positive feedback is the dangerous one
Positive feedback amplifies a change; negative feedback damps it. Ice melting exposes darker ocean, which absorbs more heat and melts more ice. Positive does not mean good — it means self-reinforcing.
Feedbacks produce thresholds
A system dominated by negative feedback returns to equilibrium. One where positive feedback takes over can shift rapidly to a new state and not come back, which is what a tipping point means.
Step 4: A Common Mistake
Lots of people think
“Positive feedback is beneficial and negative feedback is harmful.”
Step 5: Why a Tipping Point Is Not a Prediction of Speed
The same idea somewhere new.
A tipping point is where a damping loop is overwhelmed and an amplifying one takes over, so the system moves to a new state and will not return simply by removing the original push. What it does not tell you is how fast that happens — some tipping points play out over centuries. Treating "tipping point" as a synonym for "sudden" is a common misreading, and the useful content is about reversibility rather than speed.
Step 6: Think It Through
Practice makes it stick.
Melting Ice
Problem 1 of 2
Melting exposes dark water, which absorbs more heat. Which feedback is this?
Sweating
Problem 2 of 2
You get hot, so you sweat, so you cool. Which feedback?
Two Loops
1 of 5
Positive feedback does what?
2 of 5
Which feedback destabilises?
3 of 5
Body temperature regulation is which kind?
4 of 5
What is a tipping point?
5 of 5
Does a tipping point mean the change is fast?
Step 7: Quick Check
Show what you know.
Question 1 of 1
Is positive feedback the beneficial kind?
Step 8: Explain It in Writing
Claim, evidence, then reasoning.
The question
Explain the difference between positive and negative feedback, with an Earth example of each.
Fill in all three boxes. The reasoning box is the one that matters most.
What You Found Out
- Feedback is what a system does with a change once it starts.
- Positive feedback amplifies and destabilises; negative feedback damps and stabilises.
- The names describe the sign of the response, not whether the outcome is good.
- A tipping point is about reversibility rather than speed.