Sample and Simulation

noun

• A small part of something intended as representative of the whole.
• Items selected at random from a population and used to test hypotheses about the population.
  • synonyms: sample distribution, sampling
• All or part of a natural object that is collected and preserved as an example of its class.

verb

• Take a sample of.
  • usage: "Try these new crackers"; "Sample the regional dishes"
  • synonyms: try, try out, taste

• (n.) Example; pattern.
• (v.t.) To make or show something similar to; to match.
• (v.t.) To take or to test a sample or samples of; as, to sample sugar, teas, wools, cloths.
• (n.) A part of anything presented for inspection or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen; as, goods are often purchased by samples.

noun

• The act of imitating the behavior of some situation or some process by means of something suitably analogous (especially for the purpose of study or personnel training. )
• Computer science. ( the technique of representing the real world by a computer program)
  • usage: "a simulation should imitate the internal processes and not merely the results of the thing being simulated"
  • synonyms: computer simulation
• Representation of something (sometimes on a smaller scale.
  • synonyms: model
• The act of giving a false appearance.
  • usage: "his conformity was only pretending"
  • synonyms: pretense, pretence, pretending, feigning

(n.) The act of simulating or assuming an appearance which is feigned or not true; -- distinguished from dissimulation, which disguises or conceals what is true.

Simulation is the use of a mathematical model to imitate a situation many times in order to estimate the likelihood of various possible outcomes. See: Monte Carlo simulation.