Lesson 1 - Unit 2 Overview

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties."

- Francis Bacon

As pointed out in the previous Unit, this is a “hands-on” Course.  That is, while you are taking it, you are expected to simultaneously use the software (e.g., with this Course on one side of the screen and GoldSim on the other).

However, before doing so, it is useful to first present a few basic concepts and definitions required to help you get started.  The purpose of this Unit is simply to provide a very quick introduction and overview of basic simulation and GoldSim concepts. The remaining Units will discuss all of these concepts in great detail and provide many Examples and Exercises for you to learn in a “hands-on” manner.

In particular, this Unit will discuss the following:

• Basic simulation concepts;
• What is GoldSim?
• Elements: the basic building blocks of a GoldSim model;
• Linking elements together to create a model;
• Building large hierarchical models; and
• Running a model and viewing results.

This short introductory Unit has a total of 8 Lessons (including this overview and a summary at the end).