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On the topic of simulations, I've been learning about Modelica, which is a engineering simulator. Basically, many real world devices can be described using syst

On the topic of simulations, I've been learning about Modelica, which is a engineering simulator. Basically, many real world devices can be described using system dynamics and their behaviour codified as differential equations. Modelica allows us to build such models, including mixed-domain models (electrical, mechanics, thermal, chemical, etc.), then the Modelica compiler produces highly optimized C++ code you can run to perform the simulation. It's heavily used in the car industry in Europe, but not widely known in academia. Here are some talks about Modelica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mvEUuc-sWE&t=153 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mvEUuc-sWE&t=153 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39F___xyI0k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39F___xyI0k Here is a complete course if you want to dig in: https://spoken-tutorial.org/tutorial-search/?search_foss=OpenModelica&search_language=English https://spoken-tutorial.org/tutorial-search/?search_foss=Ope... And if you're wondering "Will it emscripten and run in the browser?", the answer is yes, of course: http://tshort.github.io/mdpad/mdpad.html?Modelica.Electrical.Analog.Examples.ChuaCircuit.md http://tshort.github.io/mdpad/mdpad.html?Modelica.Electrical... Context: I'm researching a new book on ordinary differential equations through various real-world simulations, so like an ODEs theory book, but actually applying the concepts to real world systems. Get in touch by email if you're interested in seeing advanced preview of some of the projects that will be developed this summer. Contact info in profile.

ptrott2017 6y ago
For anyone interested in exploring Modelica - Open Modelica is strongly recommended: https://www.openmodelica.org/ https://www.openmodelica.org/ Ivan - Since I regularly recommend your maths and physics books (and use and do research with Modelica)- very very interested in this. Good luck and please let us know when it can be pre-ordered.
- ivan_ah 6y ago
  > [...] let us know when it can be pre-ordered. Ah no, I'm very far from the "book draft" phase — I'm more at the "Hello world" stage ;) I've been scoping out the hands-on projects first (e.g. simulate electric motor, heater, AC unit, heatpump, etc). I think adding the ODE theory will be the easy part, so I'm focussing first on the real-world projects/applications, which might be interesting to release as standalone blog posts to make the company blog look alive https://minireference.com/blog/ https://minireference.com/blog/ ;)
  - ptrott2017 6y ago
    well - will check the blog regularly and very much looking forward to reading hello world stages :-)
- iancmceachern 6y ago
  This seems like a great open source alternative to Matlab, am I correct in my assumption?
  - ptrott2017 6y ago
    Assuming you mean Simulink rather than Matlab its not quite a direct alternative. You can use Modelica and Simulink for modeling the same type of problems but they use different modeling approaches. Simulink uses cuasal modeling, where signals flow via connections between individual blocks, transmitting values of individual variables from the output of one block to inputs of another block. Modelica uses acuasal modeling - in Modelica, individual components of the model describe the equations directly and by interconnecting individual components, the systems of equations become connected. If you are looking for a direct open source causal modeling alternative to Simulink, then SciCos (www.scicos.org) is worth a look. I would recommed playing with both Open Modelica and SciCos to see which is the best fit for you.
    - iancmceachern 6y ago
      Thank you!

ptrott2017 6y ago

For anyone interested in exploring Modelica - Open Modelica is strongly recommended: https://www.openmodelica.org/ https://www.openmodelica.org/ Ivan - Since I regularly recommend your maths and physics books (and use and do research with Modelica)- very very interested in this. Good luck and please let us know when it can be pre-ordered.

ivan_ah 6y ago
> [...] let us know when it can be pre-ordered. Ah no, I'm very far from the "book draft" phase — I'm more at the "Hello world" stage ;) I've been scoping out the hands-on projects first (e.g. simulate electric motor, heater, AC unit, heatpump, etc). I think adding the ODE theory will be the easy part, so I'm focussing first on the real-world projects/applications, which might be interesting to release as standalone blog posts to make the company blog look alive https://minireference.com/blog/ https://minireference.com/blog/ ;)
- ptrott2017 6y ago
  well - will check the blog regularly and very much looking forward to reading hello world stages :-)
iancmceachern 6y ago
This seems like a great open source alternative to Matlab, am I correct in my assumption?
- ptrott2017 6y ago
  Assuming you mean Simulink rather than Matlab its not quite a direct alternative. You can use Modelica and Simulink for modeling the same type of problems but they use different modeling approaches. Simulink uses cuasal modeling, where signals flow via connections between individual blocks, transmitting values of individual variables from the output of one block to inputs of another block. Modelica uses acuasal modeling - in Modelica, individual components of the model describe the equations directly and by interconnecting individual components, the systems of equations become connected. If you are looking for a direct open source causal modeling alternative to Simulink, then SciCos (www.scicos.org) is worth a look. I would recommed playing with both Open Modelica and SciCos to see which is the best fit for you.
  - iancmceachern 6y ago
    Thank you!