Continuous modelling

'''Continuous modelling''' is the mathematical practice of applying a model to continuous data (data which has a potentially infinite number, and divisibility, of attributes). They often use differential equations<ref name="Zill2012">{{cite book|author=Dennis G. Zill|title=A First Course in Differential Equations with Modeling Applications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pasKAAAAQBAJ&q=%22ordinary+differential%22|date=15 March 2012|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-285-40110-2}}</ref> and are converse to discrete modelling.

Modelling is generally broken down into several steps:

* Making assumptions about the data: The modeller decides what is influencing the data and what can be safely ignored. * Making equations to fit the assumptions. * Solving the equations. * Verifying the results: Various statistical tests are applied to the data and the model and compared. * If the model passes the verification progress, putting it into practice. * If the model fails the verification progress, altering it and subjecting it again to verification; if it persists in fitting the data more poorly than a competing model, it is abandoned.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20041221235307/http://www.npl.co.uk/scientific_software/research/math_modelling/ Definition by the UK National Physical Laboratory]

Category:Applied mathematics