Topic summary
Phenomenological model
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Empirical relationship.
Phenomenological model
A phenomenological model is a scientific model derived from empirical relationships. It forgoes any attempt to explain why its variables interact the way they do, and simply attempts to describe how they relate, with the assumption that the relationship extends, at least within an acceptable error margin, past the measured values. Although not directly derived from first principles, an empirical observation -based model will only be able provide reliable and accurate correspondence to the real world inasmuch as it is consistent with the underlying fundamental theory behind the phenomena being described. Regression analysis is sometimes used to create statistical models that serve as phenomenological models.