Spherical Cow

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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

Useful Links