Macroscopic systems with a large number of microscopic degrees of freedom are often well described by a small number of relevant variables, for example the magnetization in a system of spins. The Mori–Zwanzig formalism allows the finding of macroscopic equations that only depend on the relevant variables based on microscopic equations of motion of a system, which are usually determined by the Hamiltonian. The irrelevant part appears in the equations as noise. The formalism does not determine what the relevant variables are, these can typically be obtained from the properties of the system.