APCSP Simulation Models 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A simulation of an epidemic uses the rule: 'An infected person has a 30% chance of infecting each neighbor per day.' What does the 30% value represent in the model?
- A hard-coded bug
- A parameter that can be adjusted to test different scenarios (Correct answer)
- The actual observed infection rate from real data only
- The total number of infections that will occur
Correct answer: A parameter that can be adjusted to test different scenarios
The 30% value is a model parameter that can be changed to explore how different infection rates affect the epidemic's spread.
Question 2: Which of the following scenarios is BEST suited for using a simulation rather than a direct experiment?
- Testing whether a coin is fair by flipping it 10 times
- Studying the effects of an asteroid impact on Earth's climate (Correct answer)
- Measuring the boiling point of water at sea level
- Counting the number of students in a classroom
Correct answer: Studying the effects of an asteroid impact on Earth's climate
Simulating an asteroid impact is ideal because the real experiment is impossible, dangerous, and would be irreversible.
Question 3: In a simulation model, what is the role of 'initial conditions'?
- They define the programming language requirements
- They set the starting state of the system before the simulation runs (Correct answer)
- They determine how fast the simulation executes
- They store the final output of each simulation run
Correct answer: They set the starting state of the system before the simulation runs
Initial conditions define the state of the system at time zero, which determines how the simulation evolves.
Question 4: A simulation of predator-prey populations shows wolves increasing while deer decrease, then wolves declining as food runs out. This pattern is evidence that:
- The simulation has a programming error
- The simulation successfully models feedback loops in the ecosystem (Correct answer)
- The simulation needs more random inputs to be accurate
- The simulation disproves the predator-prey relationship
Correct answer: The simulation successfully models feedback loops in the ecosystem
The oscillating population pattern reflects the feedback loop where predator success depends on prey availability, matching ecological theory.
Question 5: A programmer wants to simulate how heat spreads through a metal rod. She divides the rod into 100 small segments and updates each segment's temperature every millisecond. This technique is called:
- Binary search
- Discrete time-step simulation (Correct answer)
- Regression analysis
- Parallel processing
Correct answer: Discrete time-step simulation
Dividing time into small steps and updating the system state at each step is the discrete time-step approach used in many physical simulations.
Question 6: A simulation result differs significantly from observed real-world data. What is the MOST appropriate next step?
- Accept the simulation result because computers are always accurate
- Discard the simulation entirely and use only real-world data
- Review and refine the model's assumptions and parameters (Correct answer)
- Run the simulation fewer times to reduce errors
Correct answer: Review and refine the model's assumptions and parameters
When simulation results diverge from reality, the model should be revised to better reflect real-world conditions.
Question 7: Which of the following is an example of using a simulation to answer a question that would be UNETHICAL to test in reality?
- Simulating the spread of a deadly pathogen released in a city (Correct answer)
- Simulating the path of a ball thrown at different angles
- Simulating the sorting of 1,000 numbers
- Simulating the output of a simple calculator program
Correct answer: Simulating the spread of a deadly pathogen released in a city
Releasing a deadly pathogen in a city would harm people, making simulation the only ethical way to study such scenarios.
APCSP Simulation Models 3
A simulation of an epidemic uses the rule: 'An infected person has a 30% chance of infecting each neighbor per day.' What does the 30% value represent in the model?