Why can mathematics and physics simulate natural phenomena so closely in thought experiments, calculations and computer programs?
In: 163
**”All models are wrong, some are useful”**
This is a famous saying in mathematical modeling, the field of science that uses math to mimic natural processes and predict outcomes. Often, we play around with models enough that they are actually quite reliable at predicting real-world outcomes. They are almost always oversimplified, missing components that exist in the real world, etc, but they are *good enough*.
It’s worth noting that the more stochastic/random the system is, the more complicated the models often need to become in order to be reliable. This happens in weather/climate models. It can take days to run simulations on super computers because there is so much data and so many calculations, and so many interactions between variables to account for. But in more simplified/controlled systems, it might be possible to use quite minimal math to model what is happening.
Latest Answers