Chapter 13

Simulation

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to introduce you to simulation of real-life events. A simulation is a computer experiment which mirrors some aspect of the real world that appears to be based on random processes, or is too complicated to understand properly. (Whether events can be really random is actually a philosophical or theological question.) Some examples are: radio-active decay, rolling dice, bacteria division and traffic flow. The essence of a simulation program is that the programmer is unable to predict beforehand exactly what the outcome of the program will be, which is true to the event being simulated. For example, when you spin a coin, you do not know for sure what the result will be. Some of ...

Get Essential MATLAB for Engineers and Scientists, 6th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.