We have constructed this block diagram model to account for the behavior of Al's oven.  If you want to use this model to predict behavior in a system, you would want a state differential equation that describes the system.

        Now, we can also note that the oven dynamics are described by our standard first order linear differential equation for this type of system.  Here's that differential equation again.

And, that is what we are going to accept - at least for now - for our model of Al Dente's oven.  Let's move on to using the model.

        Ok, you've gotten a model for this oven.  It's typical of the kinds of models you can get for many other systems.  What can you do with it?

 
    If you learn more about control systems,
       this model can let you predict behavior.

    You can use this model to see how accurate
       your system is.

    You can use this model to predict how the
       response will look as a function of time.