Models

A “model” is a simple idea or object. It represents a more complex thing. As a kid, you make believe that a pile of wooden blocks are a house. Those blocks are a model of a real house.

You put toy bears in groups of different sizes.

One group may have only big red bears in it, so we might describe that group with two words:

These two words are a “model” of your group of big red bears. They don’t tell you if any of the bears are broken. They don’t tell you if the bears are dark red or light red. They don’t tell you how big the bears are. They don’t tell you if all the bears are the same. They don’t tell you if the bears look happy or sad.

Because computers are not big enough to store everything about the toy bears, everything in every computer is a model.