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Comic of a spherical cow as illustrated by a 1996 meeting of the American Astronomical Association, in reference to astronomy modeling
The spherical cow is a humorous
The concept is familiar enough that the phrase is sometimes used as shorthand for the entire issue of proper modeling. For example, ''Consider a Spherical Cow'' is a 1988 book about problem solving using simplified models.
Even without the concept of scientific modeling the joke is sufficiently well known to be indirectly referenced. "Spherical Cow" was chosen as the codename for the Fedora 18 Linux distribution. In the sitcom ''
NASA:Exploration of the Universe Division - Supernova models as spherical cows
related history from Space Telescope Institute In-jokes Scientific modelling Metaphors referring to cattle Humour in science Fictional cattle Theoretical physics
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
for highly simplified scientific model
Scientific modelling is a scientific activity, the aim of which is to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate by referencing it to existing and usually commonly accepted ...
s of complex phenomena. Originating in theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...
, the metaphor refers to physicists' tendency to reduce a problem to the simplest form imaginable in order to make calculations more feasible, even if the simplification hinders the model's application to reality.
The metaphor and variants have subsequently been used in other disciplines.
History
The phrase comes from a joke that spoofs the simplifying assumptions sometimes used in theoretical physics. It is told in many variants, including a joke about a physicist who said he could predict the winner of any race provided it involved spherical horses moving through a vacuum. A 1973 letter to the editor in the journal ''Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
'' describes the "famous story" about a physicist whose solution to a poultry farm's egg-production problems began with "Postulate a spherical chicken".
References in science
A 2015 paper on the systemic errors introduced by simplifying assumptions about spherical symmetries in galactic dark-matter haloes was titled "Milking the spherical cow – on aspherical dynamics in spherical coordinates".In popular culture
The concept is familiar enough that the phrase is sometimes used as shorthand for the entire issue of proper modeling. For example, ''Consider a Spherical Cow'' is a 1988 book about problem solving using simplified models.
Even without the concept of scientific modeling the joke is sufficiently well known to be indirectly referenced. "Spherical Cow" was chosen as the codename for the Fedora 18 Linux distribution. In the sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on C ...
'', a joke is told by Dr. Leonard Hofstadter with the punchline mentioning "spherical chickens in a vacuum", in " The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization" episode.
See also
* Assume a can opener *Fermi problem
In physics or engineering education, a Fermi problem, Fermi quiz, Fermi question, Fermi estimate, order-of-magnitude problem, order-of-magnitude estimate, or order estimation is an estimation problem designed to teach dimensional analysis or ap ...
* ''Homo economicus
The term ''Homo economicus'', or economic man, is the portrayal of humans as agents who are consistently rational and narrowly self-interested, and who pursue their subjectively defined ends optimally. It is a word play on ''Homo sapiens'', u ...
''
* Naïve physics
References
{{reflist, 30emExternal links
NASA:Exploration of the Universe Division - Supernova models as spherical cows
related history from Space Telescope Institute In-jokes Scientific modelling Metaphors referring to cattle Humour in science Fictional cattle Theoretical physics