Readings in Qualitative Reasoning About Physical Systems

Preface

Qualitative Physics: A Personal View

Chapter 1 Overview and Motivation

Introduction

1.1 Qualitative Physics: Past Present and Future

1.2 Multiple Representations of Knowledge in a Mechanics Problem-Solver

1.3 The Second Naive Physics Manifesto

1.4 Modeling Simultaneous Actions and Continuous Processes

Chapter 2 Qualitative Simulation

Introduction

2.1 A Qualitative Physics Based on Confluences

2.2 Qualitative Reasoning with Higher-Order Derivatives

2.3 Temporal Qualitative Analysis: Explaining How Physical Systems Work

2.4 Qualitative Process Theory

2.5 The Qualitative Process Engine

2.6 Qualitative Simulation

2.7 Taming Intractable Branching in Qualitative Simulation

2.8 Non-intersection of Trajectories in Qualitative Phase Space: A Global Constraint for Qualitative Simulation

2.9 Global Filters for Qualitative Behaviors

2.10 Reasoning about Discontinuous Change

Chapter 3 Mathematical Aspects of Qualitative Reasoning

Introduction

3.1 Problems of Interval-Based Qualitative Reasoning

3.2 Assembling a Device

3.3 MINIMA A Symbolic Approach to Qualitative Algebraic Reasoning

3.4 Order of Magnitude Reasoning

3.5 Formal Order-of-Magnitude Reasoning in Process Engineering

3.6 'Commonsense' Arithmetic Reasoning

3.7 Hierarchical Reasoning about Inequalities

Chapter 4 History-Based Simulation and Temporal Reasoning

Introduction

4.1 Doing Time: Putting Qualitative Reasoning on Firmer Ground

4.2 Maintaining Knowledge about Temporal Intervals

4.3 Constraint Propagation Algorithms for Temporal Reasoning: A Revised Report

4.4 Reasoning about Partially Ordered Events

Chapter 5 Other Styles of Reasoning

Introduction

5.1 Comparative Analysis

5.2 Exaggeration

5.3 Order of Magnitude Reasoning in Qualitative Differential Equations

5.4 Troubleshooting: When Modeling is the Trouble

5.5 Interpreting Observations of Physical Systems

Chapter 6 Automating Quantitative Analysis

Introduction

6.1 Intelligence in Scientific Computing

6.2 Generating Global Behaviors Using Deep Knowledge of Local Dynamics

6.3 Piecewise Linear Reasoning

Chapter 7 Multiple Ontologies and Automated Modeling

Introduction

7.1 Naive Physics I: Ontology for Liquids

7.2 Reasoning about Fluids via Molecular Collections

7.3 Multiple Models of Evaporation Processes

7.4 The Use of Aggregation in Causal Simulation

7.5 Abstraction by Time-Scale in Qualitative Simulation

7.6 Diagnosis via Causal Reasoning: Paths of Interaction and the Locality Principle

7.7 Granularity

7.8 Reasoning about Assumptions in Graphs of Models

7.9 Setting up Large Scale Qualitative Models

Chapter 8 Reasoning about Shape and Space

Introduction

8.1 Qualitative Kinematics: A Framework

8.2 Qualitative Kinematics in Mechanisms

8.3 Shape and Function in Mechanical Devices

8.4 Automated Reasoning about Machine Geometry and Kinematics

8.5 A Qualitative Approach to Mechanical Constraint

8.6 Simplification and Abstraction of Kinematic Behaviors

8.7 A Framework for Qualitative Reasoning about Solid Objects

Chapter 9 Causal Explanations of Behavior

Introduction

9.1 The Declarative Representation and Procedural Simulation of Causality in Physical Mechanisms

9.2 The Origin and Resolution of Ambiguities in Causal Arguments

9.3 Causality in Device Behavior

9.4 Theories of Causal Ordering

9.5 Theories of Causal Ordering: Reply to de Kleer and Brown

9.6 Causal Reasoning about Quantities

Bibliography

Author Index

Subject Index

Credits