Patent ID: 7216313

Claim:
A method for modeling a characteristic C that is distributed within a domain, said method comprising: storing a base equation in at least one computer-readable memory device, said base equation expressing the characteristic C as a function f of a variable V through use of N+1 parameters C 0 , C 1 , . . . , C N , said base equation being of a form C=f(C 0 , C 1 , . . . , C N , V), said N being at least 1, said parameters C 0 , C 1 , . . . , C N being subject to uncertainty; generating a probability density function (PDF) for describing a probability of occurrence of C 0 in accordance with said uncertainty; generating subsidiary equations expressing C 1 , . . . , C N in terms of C 0 ; and storing the PDF and the subsidiary equations in the at least one computer-readable memory device, wherein the base equation, the PDF, and the subsidiary equations are adapted to be accessed from the at least one memory device for usage in determining C.