Optimizing Function Selection for Modeling Complex Systems

[Mephisto]

I do a lot of computer programming and often times i have a very clear idea of a function i need to model something, but i have no idea what kind of function would be good to model it, or how to vary its parameters to get what i need etc.

what i need is some way to sketch the function using just mouse or something, and a program that would tell me what kind of function would best approximate what I had in mind. for example, exponential, polynomial, tan inverse, some combination of those? Does anyone know of a program/procedure that does something like this?

Math forum is the best place i could find for this, I'm sorry if its not an exact fit.

 

[Chronos]

Use binary logic [0 and 1] to model the physical states you are studying. You can then arbitrarily define boundary conditions for 0 and 1 and examine them statistically.

 

[Mephisto]

hi, I'm sorry but i don't really understand what you mean. What are the physical states? For example, last time i was trying to determine what speed you have to run in the rain to minimize the amount of water you come to contact with (get least wet). I needed to have a function E(v), where given velocity v, I would get back the Extra area exposed to the vertical rain (since you are lifting your legs so that rain can strike those too). I could graph the function E(v) from just empirical observations, roughly, but i couldn't translate the thing into math! I didn't know what function to use in my calculations.
And I have no idea how I would apply your solution to something like this. what would be the physical states?