What kind of diagram would you use to show how the system will be implemented on a physical machine?

A deployment diagram is the appropriate choice for illustrating how a system will be implemented on a physical machine. This type of diagram provides a visual representation of the hardware components (nodes) in a system and the relationships between them, including the software that will run on each of those components. Deployment diagrams are particularly valuable in understanding the physical distribution of software across various hardware platforms, including servers, network devices, and the connections between them.

In contrast, a component diagram focuses on the organization and dependencies of the software components but does not specifically detail how these components are deployed on physical hardware. A class diagram is concerned with the structure of the system in terms of classes and their relationships, which is more about design than implementation in a physical context. A state diagram is used to model the states of an object and the transitions between those states, rather than the physical aspects of implementation. Therefore, a deployment diagram best represents the system’s physical configuration and how software elements are allocated across machines.