1.   Define simulation and give five examples from everyday life.

 

2.   Describe the characteristics of a complex system.

 

3.   What is the essence of constructing a model?

 

4.   Name two types of simulations and distinguish between them.

 

5.   The solutions to continuous simulation usually take what form?

 

6.   What are the ingredients in a discrete event simulation?

 

7.   What are the keys to constructing a good model?

 

8.   What defines the interactions among entities in a discrete event simulation?

 

9.   What is the relationship between object-oriented design and model building?

 

10.   Define the goal of a queuing system.

 

11.   What are the four necessary pieces of information needed to build a queuing system?

 

12.   What part does a random-number generator play in queuing simulations?

 

13.   Write the rules for a queuing simulation of a one-pump gas station, where a car arrives every three minutes and the service time is four minutes.

 

14.   Do you think the gas station in Exercise 13 will be in business very long? Explain.

 

15.   Rewrite the simulation in Exercise 13 such that a car arrives every two minutes and the service time is two minutes.

 

16.   Write the rules for a queuing system for an airline reservation counter. There is one queue and two reservation clerks. People arrive every three minutes and take three minutes to be processed.

 

17.   Distinguish between a FIFO queue and a priority queue.

 

18.   What did SIMULA contribute to object-oriented programming methodology?

 

19.   In general, meteorological models are based on the time-dependent equations of what fields?

 

21.   How much mathematics is necessary to be a meteorologist?

 

22.   Why is there more than one weather prediction model?

 

23.   Why do different meteorologists give different forecasts if they are using the same models?

 

24.   What are specialized meteorological models and how are they used?

 

25.   What are seismic models used for?

 

26.   Define CAD.

 

27.   What are two-dimensional CAD models used for?

 

28.   What are three-dimensional CAD models used for?

 

29.   What are the three methods of modeling in three dimensions and how do you determine which should be used where?

 

31.   Distinguish between an embedded system and a regular computing system.

 

32.   Embedded systems’ programmers are the last holdout for assembly- language programming. Explain.

 

33.   A random number generator can be used to vary service times as well as determine arrivals. For example, assume that 20% of the customers take 8 minutes and 80% of the customers take 3 minutes. How might you use a random number generator to reflect this distribution?

 

34.   Why do we say that simulation doesn’t give an answer?

 

35.   What do simulations and spreadsheet programs have in common?

 

36.   Why do meteorologists need to study so much mathematics?