Spherical Cow

Basics

• A Metaphor Used to Describe Oversimplification, especially in Computer Models, and equations about a subject especially science and engineering
• Essentially goes that in modeling cows for a study, they made them perfect spheres, for simplicity, changed the atmosphere to a perfect vacuum to avoid the complexity of calculating drag, for simplicity...
• This is only a word of caution, even if flawed to acertain degree, anything can be useful; no model is perfect
• This also shows the need for "real world" tests such as Destructive Testing, Sample Trials (Giving a product to a small town/trying a new law only there before widesprewad adoption to gather data after theoretical work)

See Also

• Computer Models

Useful Links

• [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow The Wikipedia Page on The Metaphor