Information Spread in a Social Media Age

6

Modeling Basics

“If you want to know your past — look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future — look into your present actions.”

Chinese Proverb

This chapter begins with a simple definition of a model along with why models are so important when trying to mathematically and conceptually explore a natural or man-made system. Special attention is paid to the role models play in decision making in industry and advertising environments and the importance of recognizing model assumptions and approximations. Some of the major standard types of models are considered and explained, with a deeper focus on mathematical systems modeling. The idea of microscopic and macroscopic level models are presented and compared. With a ...