Videos

Achilles and the Tortoise: Physical constraints on logical models

Presenter
February 20, 2017
Abstract
(1) The race is not always to the swift. (Still, that's where the smart money is.) (2) Mathematical and physical models are abstractions, and, as such, always leave something out. Sometimes leaving the parts out is critical for the functioning of the model and can be regarded as extraneous. In other cases, that which is left out is critical to the phenomenon being modeled, and leaving it out causes problems in relating the model to observed reality.