I remember my high school bio teacher telling us that our body maintains homeostasis through a feedback loop like a house furnace maintains temperature. The furnace kicks on whenever it is needed to heat the house back up to the desired temperature and then shuts off again when that temperature is reached. But wouldn’t it be more efficient to just stay on at a low level always maintaining that temperature? Sort of how a car would maintain its speed. Cruise control works by maintaining the desired speed. Not speeding back up to that speed once it slows to a different speed. Right?
In: Biology
In your analogy of cruise control, the speed of the car is the maintenance of homeostasis, however, the RPM of the engine changes in response to environmental conditions in order to maintain that speed.
If the car goes up a hill, the RPM may increase or the gear might change in order to maintain speed. This happens via a feedback mechanism like homeostasis of the body or of a thermostat.
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