In turn, this caused the gun mount to move in a direction that reduced the difference between actual and ordered positions. In its second meaning, feedback referred to a sample of the output of a system or circuit fed back as additional input. Samples of the output of the amplifiers controlling the motors that position the gun mount are fed back as additional input. In this context, positive and negative have no value connotations but mean simply that the feedback has the same or opposite polarity as the input signal. However, the effects of these two forms of feedback are quite different.
Positive feedback makes the system more responsive and negative feedback makes it more stable.
Too much negative feedback makes it sluggish. As a technician, finding the optimum balance between responsiveness and stability occupied many an hour of my time. As a consultant and executive it still does, although in a very different way. The preceding discussion illustrates two important aspects of feedback. First, the purpose of feedback is control.