Computer simulation
hideA computer simulation, a computer model or a computational model is a computer program, or network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system. Computer simulations have become a useful part of mathematical modeling of many natural systems in physics (computational physics), chemistry and biology, human systems in economics, psychology, and social science and in the process of engineering new technology, to gain insight into the operation of those systems, or to observe their behavior.
Computer simulations vary from computer programs that run a few minutes, to network-based groups of computers running for hours, to ongoing simulations that run for days. The scale of events being simulated by computer simulations has far exceeded anything possible (or perhaps even imaginable) using the traditional paper-and-pencil mathematical modeling: over 10 years ago, a desert-battle simulation, of one force invading another, involved the modeling of 66,239 tanks, trucks and other vehicles on simulated terrain around Kuwait, using multiple supercomputers in the DoD High Performance Computer Modernization Program; a 1-billion-atom model of material deformation (2002); a 2.64-million-atom model of the complex maker of protein in all organisms, a ribosome, in 2005; and the Blue Brain project at EPFL (Switzerland), began in May 2005, to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, right down to the molecular level.
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News tagged with computer simulations
Computer-simulated Thunderstorms with Ice Clouds Reveal Insights for Next-generation Computer Models
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer simulations of thunderstorms using data from a field campaign in Australia confirm that the "ice-phase" cloud processes in climate models contribute most to the wide discrepancy between ...
Studying how black holes grow
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 17, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Black holes are some of the most exotic objects in the universe. They are the final evolutionary stage of giant stars much larger than the sun. When these stars explode, their cores collapse down to the size ...
Computer simulation strengthens link between climate change and release of subsea methane
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 17, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (21) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A first-of-its-kind computer simulation that mirrors real-world observations of methane bubbling up from a seabed in the Arctic Ocean provides further evidence that warming oceans may unleash ...
Understanding ocean climate
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 10, 2009 |
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High-resolution computer simulations performed by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) are helping to understand the inflow of North Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean and how ...
Dinosaurs hop, skip and jump into 21st century
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Dec 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Dinosaurs have literally been put through their paces by a new supercomputer, allowing scientists to get closer to understanding how they once moved.
Entropy alone creates complex crystals from simple shapes, study shows
Dec 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that elevates the role of entropy in creating order, research led by the University of Michigan shows that certain pyramid shapes can spontaneously organize into complex quasicrystals.
Study highlights implications of influenza pandemics on blood supplies
Dec 09, 2009 |
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A German research team has examined data on supply and demand for blood transfusions against a computer simulation of an influenza pandemic, and discovered that a severe pandemic scenario could quickly lead to a deficit of ...
Study helps advance heart-related research
Dec 04, 2009 |
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Using a new mathematical model of heart cells, University of Iowa investigators have shown how activation of a critical enzyme, calmodulin kinase II (CaM kinase), disrupts the electrical activity of heart cells.
Study simulated car crashes involving pregnant women
Dec 02, 2009 |
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Although states are not required to report fetal deaths in accident data, between 300 and 1,000 unborn babies die in car accidents each year. This accident fatality rate is about four times the rate for victims ...
Ultra-Powerful Laser Reproduces How Star's Jets Travel through Interstellar Space
Nov 20, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A multi-trillion-watt laser at the University of Rochester has simulated a stellar jet -- an outpouring of matter from a fledgling star -- with unprecedented realism.
Nothing But Net: The Physics of Free-Throw Shooting
Nov 04, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (5) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Pay attention, Shaq: Two North Carolina State University engineers have figured out the best way to shoot a free throw - a frequently underappreciated skill that gets more important as the ...
Laser-plasma accelerators ride on Einstein's shoulders
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Using Einstein's theory of special relativity to speedup computer simulations, scientists have designed laser-plasma accelerators with energies of 10 billion electron volts (GeV) and beyond. These systems, ...
Building Planet Earth
Oct 22, 2009 |
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A new study shows how rocky planets are formed from the manic swirl of gas and dust that surround a young star, and determines what chemical building blocks are used to construct the planets. Understanding ...
Ancient Flying Pterosaur Also Sailed Seas (w/ Video)
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Tapejara was an excellent flyer that also had an innate nautical knowledge of sailing.
The Fall of the Maya: 'They Did it to Themselves'
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 07, 2009 |
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For 1200 years, the Maya dominated Central America. At their peak around 900 A.D., Maya cities teemed with more than 2,000 people per square mile -- comparable to modern Los Angeles County. Even in rural areas ...
