Lesson 1 Summary

Lesson 1, page 5 of 5

Lesson 1 has defined the basic concepts of simulation. They are:

• Simulation is the process of creating a model of an existing or proposed system A subunit of the world separated by a boundary from the rest of the world. The description of the system is comprised of the relations within the system as well as those characterizing the action of the outside world on the system. in order to identify and understand the factors that control the system, or to predict the future behavior of the system.
• In a static simulation, the system model does not change with time.
• In a dynamic simulation, the system model changes and evolves with time.
• Deterministic simulation A simulation is which the input parameters are represented using single values (i.e., they are “determined” or assumed to be known with certainty). often represents "the best guess" or "worst case" outcome.
• Probabilistic simulation A simulation in which the uncertainty in the input parameters is explicitly represented by defining them as probabilility distributions. represents uncertainty by specifying inputs as probability distributions and explicitly quantifies the likelihood of various outcomes.
• Simulation is a powerful and important tool because it provides a way in which alternative designs, plans and/or policies can be evaluated without having to experiment on a real system.