---
slug: overshoot
name: Overshoot
one_liner: "A transient in which a responding quantity exceeds its eventual steady-state or target value before settling back to it — the underdamped system 'goes too far' en route to equilibrium, peaks above target, then corrects."
type: prime
schema_version: 2
status: density_v2_draft
categories: [structural, physical, economic]
origin_domain: control_theory
alternate_origin_domains: [ecology, economics, physiology, systems_dynamics]
aliases: [percent_overshoot, exceeding_the_target_then_correcting, underdamped_response, going_too_far_before_settling, transient_excess]
related: []
solution_archetypes: []
review_flags:
- "OPERATOR-DERIVED (op-03 temporalization) — the dynamic obtained by temporalizing the static targeting/equilibrium relations in `release_from_controlling_context`, `deadweight_loss`, and `inverted_u_response`: a response quantity's trajectory in TIME that overshoots its steady-state/target before settling. Discovered in the op-03 temporalization sweep 2026-07-03. MODERATE hold (verified absent from corpus; established name — control theory's percent overshoot; ecological/demographic overshoot; Dornbusch exchange-rate overshooting). BE CANDID: this is most likely a CHILD/component of `transient_response` (a separate, STRONGER op-03 stub) — the underdamped special case of it. STATUS: HOLD pending owner keep/cut."
- "Created 2026-07-03; STUB ONLY (frontmatter + Core Idea + Notes). SI/SF/similarity are PROPOSER ESTIMATES pending triangulation. Body sections (Structural Signature onward) NOT written."
- "Phase-C action: re-similarity-check vs `transient_response` (the sibling/likely-parent op-03 stub — EVALUATE THE TWO TOGETHER), `oscillation`, `damping`, and any `overshoot_and_collapse` / `bloom_and_bust_cycle` prime (screen the Phase-C emergent list — overshoot_and_collapse may already appear there); decide distinct-prime vs. child-of-transient_response; if kept, draw a subsumption edge `transient_response`→`overshoot` + composition/contrast edges to `damping`/`oscillation`; write a v1 draft and sync the one_liner across v1/v2 per CLAUDE.md before merge."
substrate_independence:
  composite_substrate_independence: 4
  domain_breadth: 4
  structural_abstraction: 4
  transfer_evidence: 4
  reasoning: 'The bare structure — a quantity approaching an equilibrium or target through a trajectory that first EXCEEDS the target, reaches a peak amplitude above it, then settles back (usually via decaying oscillation) — is a genuinely substrate-neutral temporal form. It recurs wherever a system with inertia and negative feedback approaches a set-point too aggressively: a servo or thermostat swinging past its command value, a population that grows past the resource-supported carrying capacity before crashing back, an exchange rate that jumps beyond its long-run equilibrium on a monetary shock (Dornbusch overshooting), a physiological variable rebounding past baseline. These are structurally-unlike siblings sharing only the abstract exceed-then-correct trajectory, so domain_breadth scores 4 (broad but concentrated in feedback/dynamical-system substrates rather than fully universal). Structural abstraction is 4 because the core is a pure statement about a response trajectory relative to its own steady state, needing no physical substance; the named anatomy (peak amplitude, settling oscillation, underdamped condition) is drawn from control theory but transfers cleanly. Transfer evidence is strong (independently named in control engineering, ecology/demography, and macroeconomics).'
similarity_to_nearest_existing_prime:
  slug: transient_response
  similarity: 0.60
structural_framed:
  label: structural
  aggregate: 0.35
  criteria: {vocab_travels: 0.7, evaluative_weight: 0.25, institutional_origin: 0.1, human_practice_bound: 0.15, import_vs_recognize: 0.4}
  rationale: 'Reads structural. The core claim — a response that exceeds its steady-state target before settling — is recognized rather than imported, and travels cleanly into ecology (overshoot-and-collapse), macroeconomics (Dornbusch overshooting), and physiology without carrying control-engineering vocabulary. The frame residue is light: "target," "settling," and the underdamped condition import a mild engineering cast (keeping import_vs_recognize off the floor), but the underlying temporal structure — a peak above equilibrium followed by corrective return — is substrate-neutral. Comparable framing to its likely parent `transient_response`.'
phase_b_passes_completed: []
---
# Overshoot

## Core Idea

Overshoot is a transient in which a responding quantity *exceeds its eventual steady-state or target value before settling back to it* — the system, en route to equilibrium, "goes too far," reaches a peak amplitude above the target, and then corrects. It is the temporalization of a static targeting relation: where the underlying prime describes a set-point, an equilibrium, or an optimum that a quantity is *at*, overshoot describes the *trajectory in time* by which that quantity arrives — and the specific way that trajectory can carry the quantity past its destination before returning. The load-bearing anatomy has three named parts: a *peak amplitude* above target (in control theory quantified as percent overshoot, the peak's excess over the steady-state value as a fraction of it), a *settling oscillation* (a typically decaying ring-down around the target as the system corrects and re-corrects), and the *underdamped-response condition* that produces the whole shape — enough restoring feedback and inertia that the system swings past its set-point rather than easing monotonically onto it.

The distinguishing contrast is with monotone (overdamped) approach, where the quantity slides onto its target without ever exceeding it. Overshoot is precisely the case where the approach is *not* monotone: the response crosses the target, rises above it, and only then falls back. That crossing is the feature that makes overshoot its own recognizable dynamic rather than "approach to equilibrium" in general — the system's momentum or lagged correction carries it beyond the point it is seeking, so the very act of reaching the target requires overshooting and undoing the overshoot.

Read structurally, the same exceed-then-correct trajectory appears wherever a system with inertia and negative feedback approaches a set-point too aggressively, and the siblings are genuinely unlike. In *control engineering*, a servo or thermostat swings past its commanded value and rings down to it (percent overshoot is a standard design specification). In *ecology and demography*, a population grows past the resource-supported carrying capacity before crashing back toward it — *overshoot-and-collapse* — and a demographic transition can carry a population past its long-run level. In *macroeconomics*, Dornbusch's exchange-rate *overshooting* has a currency jump beyond its long-run equilibrium on a monetary shock, then converge back as prices adjust. In *physiology and heating/cooling systems*, a regulated variable rebounds past baseline before settling. Across these, the shared abstract form is a response trajectory that peaks above its own steady state and corrects — the control-theoretic case is one species of the genus.

## Notes

**Provenance.** Produced by operator 03 (temporalization), from the static targeting/equilibrium relations latent in `release_from_controlling_context`, `deadweight_loss`, and `inverted_u_response` — temporalized into the trajectory by which a quantity arrives at (and past) its set-point. Surfaced in the op-03 temporalization sweep on 2026-07-03. Established name across multiple literatures: control theory's *percent overshoot* and underdamped step response; *ecological / demographic overshoot* and overshoot-and-collapse; macroeconomic *overshooting* (Dornbusch 1976, exchange-rate overshooting). Substrate-neutral instances: control systems, ecology (population/resource overshoot), economics (price/exchange-rate overshooting), physiology, and thermostats/heating. Verified absent from the corpus. Manifest: MODERATE hold.

**For owner evaluation (keep/cut) — READ WITH `transient_response`.** The case FOR: overshoot is a *canonical named construct* (percent overshoot; ecological overshoot; Dornbusch overshooting), verified absent, and names a recognizable, distinct dynamic — *exceeding the target then correcting* — with genuinely cross-domain instances spanning engineering, ecology, and economics. The case AGAINST, stated candidly: (1) **overshoot is most likely a CHILD / special case of `transient_response`** (a separate, STRONGER op-03 stub) — specifically the *underdamped* branch of the general transient, the case where the transient carries the response past its steady state. It may not be an independent prime so much as one named region of transient_response's space. (2) **Overlap with an `overshoot_and_collapse` / `bloom_and_bust_cycle` prime** — overshoot-and-collapse is overshoot *plus* a collapse in resource/population systems; if such a prime already exists (screen the Phase-C emergent list, where `overshoot_and_collapse` may appear), overshoot is its first component and the relationship must be drawn, not merged. The sharp keep/cut question is exactly: *is overshoot a distinct prime, or a child of `transient_response` (the underdamped case)?* The proposer's recommendation is to **evaluate `transient_response` and `overshoot` together** and let the owner decide whether to keep overshoot as a distinct prime or fold it under transient_response as its underdamped special case.

**At incorporation.** Re-run similarity against `transient_response` (the sibling / likely parent — evaluate jointly), `oscillation`, `damping` (present — underdamping is the condition that produces overshoot), and any `overshoot_and_collapse` / `bloom_and_bust_cycle` prime. If kept as distinct: draw a subsumption edge `transient_response` → `overshoot` (overshoot = the underdamped transient), a composition/contrast edge to `damping` (underdamping produces overshoot; the overdamped case does not overshoot), and an edge to `oscillation` (the settling ring-down); add a component edge into any `overshoot_and_collapse` prime (overshoot is its first phase). If folded: redirect to `transient_response` and record overshoot as its named underdamped case. Add a missing-edge note flagging the `transient_response` parent relationship and the `overshoot_and_collapse` component relationship explicitly. Write a v1 draft and sync the one_liner across v1 and v2 per CLAUDE.md before merge.
