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| entails observing the behavior of a system and formulating a hypothesis that tries to explain its behavior then design and carry out experiments to prove or disprove the validity of that hypothesis |
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| an abstraction of the system being studied, which we claim behaves much like the original |
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| computational models/simulation models |
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| a set of mathematical equations and/or algorithmic procedures that capture the fundamental characteristics and behavior of a physical system |
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| Reasons for constructing a simulation model |
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Definition
-existence: system may not exist, not possible to experiment with the real thing
-physical realization: system is not made out of physical objects
-safety: dangerous to experiment with the real system
-speed of construction: not enough time to build a physical model
-time scale: physical systems may change too slow or too fast
-ethical behavior: physical models may have moral and ethical consequences
-ease of modification: would need to create a whole new physical model if not happy with final results |
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| interactive approach to design that is usually infeasible using physical models because it would take too much time |
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-try to achieve proper balance between both, not easy to be b/c most systems are acted upon by many factors. need to decide which factors are important and which can be safely omitted from the model
-model must be a correct representation of the physical system, but at the same time, it must be easy to implement as a program or set of equations and solve on a computer in a reasonable amount of time |
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| a set of explicit mathematical equations that describe the behavior of a system as a continuous function of time t then solved on a computer system to produce desired results |
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| parts of the system that display random behaviors, like the throw of a dice or drawing of a card, that make it difficult to say what event will happen to the system next |
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| statistical approximations |
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| models that don't use precise and exact equations |
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| discrete event simulation |
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Definition
-modeling system that does not require a lot of complex mathematics
-one of the most popular and widely used techniques for building computer models
-model the behavior of a system only at an explicit and finite set of times, the moments we model are those when an event takes place |
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| any activity that changes the state of the system |
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| not continuous, but explicit and finite |
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-arrangement of values of a variable showing their observed or theoretical frequency of occurrence
-a computer can use it to generate a sequence of random numbers and accurately model the time it takes to serve customers in real life |
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| a random integer that takes on the values 1-100 with equal likelihood |
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| the results you get out of the simulation model are only as good as the data and the assumptions put into the model |
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| steps to initializing a model |
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Definition
-set the current time to 0
-set the waiting line size to 0
-get a value for N (number of servers) and name them all idle
-determine the total number of customers to be served and exactly when they will arrive |
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Definition
-field that is concerned with the issue of how to visualize data in a way that highlights its important characteristics and simplifies its interpretation
-without this we would be able to construct models and execute them, but would not be able to interpret them
-concerned with how to visually display a large data set in a way that is most helpful to users and that maximizes its comprehension |
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-field that is concerned with the technical issues involved in information display
-deals with actual rendering of an image |
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| determining which data values are important and which should be part of the visual display and which ones can be omitted |
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| consists of looking for ways to convert the data to other forms or to different units that will make the display easier to understand and interpret |
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-most powerful and useful form of visualization
-produced by a sufficient number of images that can display them rapidly in sequence |
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