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
Ski Robot Could Decipher the Art of Skiing
Jul 20, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Watching an Olympic skier perform a downhill slalom, turning smoothly around the flags, makes the sport seem just as much an art as a science. Although advanced skiers know how to turn effectively, ...
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.
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 ...
Arctic at warmest levels in 2,000 years or more
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 03, 2009 |
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Arctic temperatures in the 1990s reached their warmest level of any decade in at least 2,000 years, new research indicates. The study, which incorporates geologic records and computer simulations, provides ...
Is the Milky Way doomed to be destroyed by galactic bombardment? Probably not
Aug 31, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As scientists attempt to learn more about how galaxies evolve, an open question has been whether collisions with our dwarf galactic neighbors will one day tear apart the disk of the Milky ...
Mathematicians set world record in packing puzzle
Aug 12, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Finding the best way to pack the greatest quantity of a specifically shaped object into a confined space may sound simple, yet it consistently has led to deep mathematical concepts and practical ...
The guiding of light: A new metamaterial device steers beams along complex pathways
Jul 31, 2009 |
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Using a composite metamaterial to deliver a complex set of instructions to a beam of light, Boston College physicists have created a device to guide electromagnetic waves around objects such as the corner ...
Swiss team unveil pioneering solar plane
Jun 26, 2009 |
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Round-the-world balloooning pioneer Bertrand Piccard unveiled his solar-powered aircraft in Switzerland on Friday, ready for another trend-setting circumnavigation of the globe powered solely by the sun.
Scientists Observe Liquid Water Below Freezing
Jun 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Below 0 °C, water turns to ice. But beyond that, or below about -75 °C, the ice may turn back into liquid water. While scientists have previously predicted this phase transition with computer ...
First direct observations of biological particles in high-altitude ice clouds
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 17, 2009 |
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A team of UC San Diego-led atmospheric chemistry researchers moved closer to what is considered the "holy grail" of climate change science when it made the first-ever direct detection of biological particles ...
Star crust 10 billion times stronger than steel, physicists find
May 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Research by a theoretical physicist at Indiana University shows that the crusts of neutron stars are 10 billion times stronger than steel or any other of the earth's strongest metal alloys.
Research gives clues for self-cleaning materials, water-striding robots
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 04, 2009 |
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Self-cleaning walls, counter tops, fabrics, even micro-robots that can walk on water -- all those things and more could be closer to reality because of research recently completed by scientists at the University ...
Simulations, ancient magnetism suggest mantle plumes may bend deep beneath Earth's crust
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 02, 2009 |
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Computer simulations, paleomagnetism and plate motion histories described in today's issue of Science reveal how hotspots, centers of erupting magma that sit atop columns of hot mantle that were once though ...
Humanoid robot helps scientists to understand intelligence
Mar 31, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A humanoid robot newly acquired by Imperial College London will lead to a deeper understanding of human intelligence, says scientists today.
