Lesson 1 - Unit 2 Overview

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.

Lewis Carroll

Before we can discuss the Contaminant Transport Module, it is first necessary to describe a key feature that the Module depends upon: the use of arrays. This is actually a feature of the basic GoldSim framework.  However, even if you are familiar with the basic GoldSim framework, it is possible that you are not familiar with this feature (e.g., the feature is not discussed in any detail in the Basic GoldSim Course). However, the Contaminant Transport Module utilizes this feature extensively, and therefore it is discussed in this Unit, as a good understanding of the feature is required to use the Contaminant Transport Module. (It is worth noting that this feature can also be quite useful when using just the basic GoldSim framework).

So in this Unit we will describe what arrays are in GoldSim and in general how they can be used.  Although we will mention very briefly how they are specifically used in the Contaminant Transport Module, that topic will not be discussed in detail until later Units.

There are two types of arrays in GoldSim: 1-D arrays (referred to as vectors) and 2-D arrays (referred to as matrices). We will focus only on vectors, as these are the types of arrays that are used by the Contaminant Transport Module.

Specifically, in this Unit we will discuss:

• What arrays and Array Labels are;
• How to create arrays;
• How to manipulate arrays using mathematical operators and functions;
• How to manipulate arrays using standard GoldSim elements; and
• How to view array results.

This Unit has a number of Examples, as well as two Exercises and a total of 10 Lessons (including this overview and a summary at the end).