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2012-12-18T18:12:59Z

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A mathematical model can be very simple or very complex. The goal is to represent a system or process using precise definitions and mathematical relationships. One way to create a model is to simply start building it, acknowledging it won't be perfect, but trying to improve the model along the way. Eventually you should arrive at a basic (fairly simple) model, which you can then make more complex (and perhaps more accurate) by elaborating in areas that previously were glossed over.

For instance, if I want to represent amount of daylight in a single day, one of the simplest models might be:

* For any given day D, some percentage of that day occurs in which there is measurable daylight L.

However, I can improve this model and make it more complicated by:

* Measuring daylight L as hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds (or similarly as some percentage up to a particular decimal point e.g. 49.255%) of some day.
* Adding new variables, such as a geolocation--G1 longitude and G2 latitude, since daylight is a function of where on the earth measurement is taken. Or, allowing daylight to be more than a percentage, represented by an additional variable for luminosity U (imagine clouds reducing the impact of daylight).

However, perhaps some of the complications are not relevant given the context, so one may want to simplify the model to simply be:

* Daylight L for any given day D is a function of location only (G1 longitude and G2 latitude). Now, if we construct a look-up table for daylight at any given geolocation, we'd be able to find '''L(G1, G2) = some # of seconds per day D'''.

Morning math/Models - Revision history

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