Synergy

Table of contents

1 Definition
2 Examples

2.1 Combined effects of pests
2.2 Interacting Humans

Definition

There are different definitions of synergy. Some of them are:

Synergy is the difference between the combined effect and the sum of individual effects resulting from the interaction of a group of humans, agents or forces.

Synergy, or synergism, is the phenomenon of two or more discrete influences or agents acting in common to create an effect which is greater than the sum of the effects each is able to create independently

Synergy is the excess stemming from cooperation.

"Synergy means behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately" as given in Buckminster Fuller's book "Synergetics".

Examples

In a biological host organism population, the introduction of parasite A may cause 10% fatalities of the individuals, and parasite B may also cause 10% loss. When both parasites are present, the losses are observed to be significantly greater than the expected 20%, and it is said that the parasites in combination have a synergistic effect. An example is beekeeping in North America where three foreign parasites of the honeybee, acarine mite, tracheal mite and the small hive beetle, all were introduced within a short period of time.

Interacting Humans

Person A alone is too short to reach an apple on a tree and person B is too short as well. Once person B sits on the shoulders of person A, they are more than tall enough to reach the apple. In this example, the synergy would be one apple :-)

Synergy is also a name of the project of musical artist Larry Fast performing electronic music. Apart from its popularity some of these works were used as bases for musics of computer games of Commodore 64 and Amiga, too.