Modeling and simulation are powerful tools for explaining the world, making predictions, designing things that work, and making them work better. Learning to use these tools can be difficult; this book is my attempt to make the experience as enjoyable and productive as possible.<\/p>\n
By reading this book\u2014and working on the exercises\u2014you will learn some programming, some modeling, and some simulation. With basic programming skills<\/a>, you can create models for a wide range of physical systems. My goal is to help you develop these skills in a way you can apply them immediately to real-world problems.<\/p>\n This book presents the entire modeling process, including model selection, analysis, simulation, and validation. I explain this process in Chapter 1, and there are examples throughout the book.<\/p>\n To make this book accessible to the widest possible audience, I\u2019ve tried to minimize the prerequisites.<\/p>\n This book is intended for people who have never programmed before. I start from the beginning, define new terms when they are introduced, and present only the features you need, when you need them.<\/p>\n I assume that you know trigonometry<\/a> and some calculus<\/a>, but not very much. If you understand that a derivative represents a rate of change, that\u2019s enough. You will learn about differential equations and some linear algebra, but I will explain what you need to know as we go along.<\/p>\n I will assume you know basic physics<\/a>, in particular the concepts of force, acceleration, velocity, and position. If you know Newton<\/a>\u2019s second law of motion in the form F = ma, that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"0.1 Who This Book Is For<\/h4>\n