3.16 Simulations

Enduring Understanding

Programmers break down problems into smaller and more manageable pieces. By creating procedures and leveraging parameters, programmers generalize processes that can be reused. Procedures allow programmers to draw upon existing code that has already been tested, allowing them to write programs more quickly and with more confidence.

Learning Objective

For simulations:

a. Explain how computers can be used to represent real-world phenomena or outcomes.

b. Compare simulations with real-world contexts.

Essential Knowledge

Simulations are abstractions of more complex objects or phenomena for a specific purpose.

A simulation is a representation that uses varying sets of values to reflect the changing state of a phenomenon.

Simulations often mimic real-world events with the purpose of drawing inferences, allowing investigation of a phenomenon without the constraints of the real world.

The process of developing an abstract simulation involves removing specific details or simplifying functionality.

Simulations can contain bias derived from the choices of real-world elements that were included or excluded.

Simulations are most useful when real-world events are impractical for experiments (e.g., too big, too small, too fast, too slow, too expensive, or too dangerous).

Simulations facilitate the formulation and refinement of hypotheses related to the objects or phenomena under consideration.

Random number generators can be used to simulate the variability that exists in the real world.