Simulation
Attempting to predict aspects of the behaviour of some system by creating an approximate (mathematical) model of it.
This can be done by physical modelling, by writing a special-purpose computer program or using a more general simulation package, probably still aimed at a particular kind of simulation (e.g. structural engineering, fluid flow). Typical examples are aircraft flight simlators or electronic circuit simulators.
A great many simulation languages exist, e.g.
Simula.
See also
emulation,
Markov chain.
Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.simulation.