Simulation of Dynamic Systems with MATLAB® and Simulink®, 3rd Edition

Preface

In the first article of SIMULATION magazine in the Fall of 1963, the editor John McLeod proclaimed simulation to mean “the act of representing some aspects of the real world by numbers or symbols which may be easily manipulated to facilitate their study.” Two years later, it was modified to “the development and use of models for the study of the dynamics of existing or hypothesized systems.” More than 40 years later, the simulation community has yet to converge upon a universally accepted definition. Either of the two cited definitions or others that followed convey a basic notion, namely, that simulation is intended to reinforce or supplement one’s understanding of a system. The definitions vary in their description of tools and methods ...