Computer simulation

                                             

     Computer simulation has three meanings. Computer simulation can refer to a computer program that simulates an abstract model so that it can be studied and analyzed. It can also refer to a 3D computer graphics model made to represent a three-dimensional object through the use of specialized software. Finally, computer simulation can refer to the practice called emulation in which the functions of a particular system are reproduced on a second system.

    A computer model, also known as a computational model, is a computer simulation widely used in the sciences and social sciences as an extension of mathematical modeling.

A computer simulation of this type creates a sampling of representative outcomes or sequences of events in situations in which playing out all possible consequences of the model is prohibitive, and the models may be more or less abstract. Computer models are used in biology, chemistry, and physics, as well as economics and psychology. The typology of computer models categorizes them based on a set of four variables. Are they stochastic or deterministic? steady-state or dynamic? continuous or discrete? local or distributed?.