:''For another meaning, see
Model of computation''
'Computational model' is a
mathematical model in
computational science that requires extensive
computational resources to study the behavior of a
complex system by
computer simulation. The system under study is often a complex
nonlinear system that simple, intuitive
analytical solutions are not readily available. Rather than deriving a mathematical analytical solution to the problem, experimentation with the model is done by changing the parameters of the system in the computer, and study the differences in the outcome of the experiments. Theories of operation of the model can be derived/deduced from these computational experiments.
Examples of common computational models are
weather forecasting models,
earth simulator models,
flight simulator models, molecular
protein folding models, and
neural network models.