Literary notes about components (AI summary)
The term "components" is used in literature to denote the individual parts that together form a larger whole, whether those parts are tangible items or abstract elements. In technical and scientific contexts, for example, it appears in discussions ranging from imported mechanical parts for manufactured goods ([1], [2]) and the measurable parts of celestial bodies ([3], [4]) to the physical properties of alloys ([5]) and calculated forces ([6], [7]). Meanwhile, in more abstract or analytical works, authors decompose concepts into their constituent elements—such as breaking down historical power ([8]), facets of the human psyche ([9], [10]), or even aspects of the soul ([11])—to better understand complex structures like society, political relationships, or behavioral impulses. Across these varied examples, "components" serves as a versatile term that underscores how individual parts, regardless of scale or field, contribute integrally to a larger, often more complex system.
- Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports of raw materials, energy, and some components for manufactured goods.
— from The 2010 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency - The island's main export is electronic components which are mainly shipped to the US.
— from The 1997 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency - Castor is a celebrated double star, but its components are far too close to be separated with an opera-glass, or even the most powerful field-glass.
— from Astronomy with an Opera-glass A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Starry Heavens with the Simplest of Optical Instruments by Garrett Putman Serviss - In a small telescope the star Castor will be found double, the components, one of which is brighter than the other, forming a binary system.
— from Astronomy of To-day: A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language by Cecil Goodrich Julius Dolmage - An alloy differs from its components in most of its physical properties, such as its hardness, ductility, strength, melting-point, and colour.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various - To find component forces equal to the composite or resultant force, the sum of the components must equal the resultant.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - The moment of the 110 resultant of several forces applied to a point is equal to the sum of the moments of the components.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The historian evidently decomposes Alexander’s power into the components:
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - Through these spontaneous attacks we learn that the complex which we call the condition of anxiety can be resolved into its components.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Thus the preponderance of sexual components of the impulse over the social components is the determining factor of the neurosis.
— from Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud - Accordingly, Plato distinguishes two components of the soul—the divine and the mortal, the rational and the irrational.
— from A History of Philosophy in Epitome by Albert Schwegler
