American Scientist

Simulation and modeling are virtually synonymous with engineering, for an engineer can hardly proceed with the analytical design of a machine, system, or structure without having at least an image of it in mind. That idea may conceivably promise to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it may have to forever remain at best a half-baked, private thought if it cannot be communicated to someone who can engineer it into something concrete. The typical first step in doing so is to simulate or model the idea through images that give it boundaries at which it will interact with the system into which it will be built. In the case of a structure such as a building or bridge, engineers must translate the originator’s idea into a form that others can grasp unambiguously and thus test analytically the structure’s strength, stability, and sufficiency for fixing the problem that the idea aims to solve.