By definition. That's what simulation means. ;)
Not really. Utah teapots are simulations of known objects [1]. Flight simulators of known phenomenon.
This is closer to Einstein or Schwarzschild’s theorising.
A simulation cannot be real. Results obtained from a real object are measurements.
If I’m simulating a bug, it doesn’t make the bug imaginary. The simulation is immaterial. (I wouldn’t quite call it imaginary. Computers don’t imagine.) But I am simulating a real thing. If, on the other hand, I simulate a bug the size of Paris, I am simulating something imaginary.
All simulations are immaterial. But the things they are simulating can be real or imagined.
Interesting that a difference of scale alone determined the nature of a thing! More interesting, perhaps, are the number of factors that aren't considered!
Would a simulation of a Peruvian ant on the Tibetan Plateau be real or imagined? What about a simulation of an ant after 20 years of climate change? How about an ant in space or experiencing the Big Bang?
On the other hand, is a simulation of a black hole real or imaginary? What about simulations of the history of the universe involving dark matter and dark energy?
I appreciate a sibling comment's (thanks marshray) suggestion that there exists a spectrum of theoreticalness. Theoreticity?
> the simulation in this paper is theoretical to a much larger degree than that of the teapot.
Are you really sure about that?
However, as an enjoyer of pedantic semantics, is the real Utah Teapot the physical pot or the model?
We routinely make detailed simulations of how such a physical teapot interacts with visible wavelengths of light, specifically for the purpose of comparing them with reality. From this we know that we do in fact have the ability to simulate this aspect of reality to a high degree of precision.
The ability to detect gravitational waves is just recently coming on-line, and we have no example of an actual warp drive to measure, so the simulation in this paper is theoretical to a much larger degree than that of the teapot.
Or you may have heard as it as all models are wrong
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/skull-cow-isnt-real-it-cant-h...