11.3 What Is a Simulation?
A computer simulation is a computer program that is designed to model some specific aspects of a real situation or system. Computer simulations will often utilize random numbers as a way of introducing some realistic variability into the underlying model. The results can then be used to gain information about the way a real system behaves. The complexity of the computer simulation depends on the complexity of the underlying reality as well as the specific characteristics we want to represent.
One of the most common types of simulation models a real-world relationship, typically between two or more life-forms that must coexist and depend on one another in some fashion. These relationships, often referred to as predator–prey ...
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