Simulation Technology: The Evolution of the Power System Network [History]

In 1915, Nature magazine published a short paper, "The Principle of Similitude." The author, Nobel-Prizewinning physicist John Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, introduced his paper by stating, "I have often been impressed by the scanty attention paid even by original workers in physics to the great principle of similitude." He went on to propose many examples of physical behavior that could be easily predicted through an existing understanding of similar physical phenomena. The principle of similarity he referred to has, in recent years, been important in the field of fluid dynamics, where the consideration of scale models must be analogous not only in shape to their real-world counterparts but in their dynamic interactions with surrounding media over time.