Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.
(continued)
Building good models is an art as well as a science. It is a science
because you need accurate observations and reliable scientifi c theories.
You could build a model based on the idea that earth and all life were
created 10,000 years ago. But that theory would have deep trouble ex-
plaining the history of Long Island, because much of the island is debris
left by ice ages more than 10,000 years ago. And you wouldn't know
what to make of ice cores from Antarctica because they contain ice
rings going back more than half a million years.
But modeling is also an art because you have to simplify to capture
the essential details. Some models contain information on all the power
plants and transmission links in the United States. But even such a
