Autonomous system (mathematics)

Okay, imagine you are playing with your toys and your mom asks you to put away your stuffed animals in one box and your cars in another box. You do this without any help from your mom. You just know which toys go in which box. This is sort of like an autonomous system.

An autonomous system in mathematics is like a magician who can do things all on their own without needing any help. Specifically, an autonomous system is a fancy way of describing how a specific formula or equation behaves all on its own, without any outside interference.

Just like you knew which toys went in which box, equations "know" what to do based on their individual rules. They don't need anyone else to tell them what to do. So, an autonomous system is just a fancy word we use to describe equations that don't need any help to work correctly.