Idealization

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Idealization is the process by which scientific models assume facts about the phenomenon being modeled that are strictly false.

Often these assumptions are used to make models easier to understand or solve.

Many times idealizations do not harm the predictive accuracy of the model for one reason or another.

Most debates surrounding the usefulness of a particular model often are about the appropriateness of different idealizations.

Galileo utilized the concept of idealization in order to formulate the law of free fall.

Galileo, in his study of bodies in motion, set up experiments that assumed frictionless surfaces and spheres of perfect roundness.

The crudity of ordinary objects has the potential to obscure their mathematical essence, and idealization is used to combat this tendency.