Simulation And Similarity Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Simulation And Similarity book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
This book is an account of modeling and idealization in modern scientific practice, focusing on concrete, mathematical, and computational models. The main topics of this book are the nature of models, the practice of modeling, and the nature of the relationship between models and real-world phenomena. In order to elucidate the model/world relationship, Weisberg develops a novel account of similarity called weighted feature matching.
The present text sets itself in relief to other titles on the subject in that it addresses the means and methodologies versus a narrow specific-task oriented approach. Concepts and their developments which evolved to meet the changing needs of applications are addressed. This approach provides the reader with a general tool-box to apply to their specific needs. Two important tools are presented: dimensional analysis and the similarity analysis methods. The fundamental point of view, enabling one to sort all models, is that of information flux between a model and an original expressed by the similarity and abstraction Each chapter includes original examples and applications. In this respect, the models can be divided into several groups. The following models are dealt with separately by chapter; mathematical and physical models, physical analogues, deterministic, stochastic, and cybernetic computer models. The mathematical models are divided into asymptotic and phenomenological models. The phenomenological models, which can also be called experimental, are usually the result of an experiment on an complex object or process. The variable dimensionless quantities contain information about the real state of boundary conditions, parameter (non-linearity) changes, and other factors. With satisfactory measurement accuracy and experimental strategy, such models are highly credible and can be used, for example in control systems.
Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including astrophysics, high-energy physics, climate science, engineering, ecology, and economics. Digital computer simulation helps study phenomena of great complexity, but how much do we know about the limits and possibilities of this new scientific practice? How do simulations compare to traditional experiments? And are they reliable? Eric Winsberg seeks to answer these questions in Science in the Age of Computer Simulation. Scrutinizing these issue with a philosophical lens, Winsberg explores the impact of simulation on such issues as the nature of scientific evidence; the role of values in science; the nature and role of fictions in science; and the relationship between simulation and experiment, theories and data, and theories at different levels of description. Science in the Age of Computer Simulation will transform many of the core issues in philosophy of science, as well as our basic understanding of the role of the digital computer in the sciences.