Tidy Modeling with R

Chapter 1. Software for Modeling

Models are mathematical tools that can describe a system and capture relationships in the data given to them. Models can be used for various purposes, including predicting future events, determining if there is a difference between several groups, aiding map-based visualization, discovering novel patterns in the data that could be further investigated, and more. The utility of a model hinges on its ability to be reductive, or to reduce complex relationships to simpler terms. The primary influences in the data can be captured mathematically in a useful way, such as in a relationship that can be expressed as an equation.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, mathematical models have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, in both obvious and subtle ways. A typical day for many people might involve checking the weather to see when might be a good time to walk the dog, ordering a product from a website, typing a text message to a friend and having it autocorrected, and checking email. In each of these instances, there is a good chance that some type of model was involved. In some cases, the contribution of the model might be easily perceived (“You might also be interested in purchasing product X”) while in other cases, the impact could be the absence of something (e.g., spam email). Models are used to choose clothing that a customer might like, to identify a molecule that should be evaluated as a drug candidate, and might even be the mechanism that ...