On 15 Nov 2009, at 12:54, Kjeldgaard Morten wrote:
Yes, but models that can be validated against experimental data. The defining characteristics of computational models is that they (A) are 100% dependent on the algortihm, (B) can't be validated at all.
Computational models can be validated by comparison to experimental observation. There is not much of a tradition for doing so, unfortunately, but the situation is slowly improving.
The outcome of computations on models certainly depends on the algorithm, just like the outcome of an experiment depends on the experimental protocol. But the algorithm, just like any experimental setup, has been designed for a particular purpose and its validity can be established by validating many results obtained from it. Again, the main problem is that this is too rarely done.
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