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One normally accepted taxonomy classifies simulations into continuous, discrete, and hybrid. But this taxonomy fails to note a significant division of simulations, particularly for the purposes of instruction and personnel training. Most business and research simulations--and many instructional simulations--are of the laboratory type (see figure 1). The simulation operator sets up the operating conditions--i.e. the values of the independent variables and parameters that define the initial state--then allows the computer model to run. This model is usually a set of mathematical functions that are sequenced by an algorithm and may contain one or more stochastic variables. This is the type of simulation subdivided in the taxonomy.