The art and science of simulation
What is simulation? A simulator is a computer model of the physical world. You are probably familiar with flight simulators, which provide sensations and interactions of flight without leaving the ground. There are also a lot of other types of simulations and simulators. We could have a medical simulator that mimics diseases or responds to treatments. It could be a financial simulation that models profits on the stock market based on trends. There are structural simulations that model loads on bridges and buildings to see whether the materials are adequate.
The most common way of creating a simulation is by building a physics model of the item under test. For a flight simulator, this means plugging in formulas for the four forces on an airplane or a helicopter – lift, gravity, thrust, and drag. Each factor has parameters that affect its performance – for instance, the lift is a function of the speed through the air, the weight of the...
