| Abstract: | Starting point of the modelling procedure are measured courses of the body length increase of man (inverse problem) reaching from the time of conception up to the end of adolescence. First assumption: The whole growth process can be subdivided into independent partial processes for succeeding time periods of the individual's development each of them producess a more or less marked growth spurt. 2. Superposition of these partial processes means addition of the portions of body length which are generated by the spurts yielding in this manner the measured course of body length increase. 3. There is no change in dynamics for producing the several growth spurts, and this dynamics will be described by the differential equation of the logistic law of growth. These steps will be interpreted in control-theoretical terms. In this sense growth is a follow-up control process which is governed by the genetically fixed “biological program of growth” in form of a step function of reference values. |
