Model (physics)
In physics , as in chemistry, models play a major role in illustrating and understanding atoms and elementary particles . Physical theories and models are closely linked and determine thinking in models for gaining knowledge and for understanding relationships and structures. Examples of theories are atomic theory , kinetic gas theory , wave theory of light, and relativity theory . Modeling also includes the mathematization of physical laws. In the didactic area, models are often used in the sense of analogies between the object area to be examined and areas already explored. In addition, demonstration models are used as simplified images (e.g. the planet model ). In addition to illustrating physical relationships, simulations serve to check hypotheses . Experiments often have a model character, not only in physics lessons , in that they simplify complex reality and restrict themselves to the essentials in the inductive derivation of regularities. Function models have a meaning, for example, to illustrate the function of simple machines .