Modelling in Action

Abstract

This last chapter provides the reader with the opportunity to do actual numerical examples of marine modelling using the models that have been introduced in the first seven chapters. Do not worry if you have no expertise in mathematics, or if some of the more technical parts of the book so far have seemed impossible to understand, the whole point of this chapter is to start from the very beginning and to take you through simple models using a step by step approach. In writing this, the author has been very influenced by the books of the late K.A.Stroud, who has over the last 30 years published programmed learning texts in the UK for engineering students. These texts, though not the favourite recommended books by lecturers and teachers of engineering students, have proved extremely popular with students, particularly those who struggle with the technical aspects of mathematics. Therefore what I wish to achieve here is a similar easy to follow run through of some of the more elementary but nevertheless instructive marine modelling examples. As the problems are introduced, you are strongly advised to actually stop reading and do the problems before looking at the answer which will appear before the next part of the text. Although it is possible to give each problem a marine flavour, it turns out that in statistics in particular this often obscures the main point in that it makes what are quite simple principles seem complicated because of the nature of the details of the example. So although in what follows most of the examples are marine, this is not exclusively so.