Representation of models for solving real-world physics problems

A computer program called a physics expert (APEX) has been developed to investigate the nature and contents of real-world physics problem models. As the representational primitives of the domain, two types of models are defined: canonical physical objects and physical models. During problem solving, the problem is represented in the form of a data connection network which is progressively augmented by these models in the form of additional network elements. APEX´s representational framework supports multiple representations (e.g. viewing many objects as a single canonical physical object) and handling of incompletely specified problems. The representational methodology may be applied to similar domains in which representations of domain knowledge are based mainly on models