Lecture E2 (2022-10-18): Making Simulations More Realistic, Part 2 – Delays, Fixed and Smoothing

In this lecture, we continue to add complexity to system dynamics models in Vensim and Insight Maker by introducing two different forms of delays – fixed delays and smoothing/averaging delays. We spend some of the lecture discussing the fundamental difference between these delays, and we spend much of the rest of the lecture discussing how to implement these delays in both Vensim and Insight Maker. We also discuss some other functions (like STEP, for step responses, and PULSE/PULSE TRAIN) as well as how to use lookup tables to insert more arbitrary functions over time as inputs to systems. Finally, we spend some time discussing how higher-order smoothing/averaging delays help mix aspects of both fixed delays and pure smoothing delays.