Other forms: simulations
A simulation is a model run on a computer to see what happens. Run a simulation, a flight simulation, the simulation predicted it.
It is only as good as its assumptions, and the danger is that a detailed output looks like evidence when it is really an argument. Flight simulators are good enough that pilots are type-rated in them. The Latin means to make like.
1nounsimulationA model run to see what would happen.
“Engineers ran a computer simulation to see how the bridge would behave in a strong wind.”
simulation is a model.
Latin simulatio comes from simulare, to make like, from similis, like. Similar and assemble are relatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*sem-
Latin
simulātiōnem
Old French
simulation
Middle French
simulation
Middle English
symulacioun
English, today
simulation
Built from
First attested in 1340 as Middle English symulacioun, from Middle French simulation, from Old French simulation/simulacion, from Latin simulātiōnem, from simulō (“imitate”). Morphologically simulate + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA