---
title: "Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Processes"
authors:
  - "Kenneth D. Forbus"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/64"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/0064.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1981
pages: "326-329"
track: "INFERENCE and REASONING"
keywords:
---

# Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Processes

Kenneth D. Forbus

*Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 326-329.

## Abstract

Common sense reasoning about the physical world must include an understanding of physical processes and the changes they cause . For example, heating a liquid causes its temperature to rise and if continued long enough may cause it to boil. A style of analysis is presented that combines deKieer's Incremental Qualitative analysis wjth the Quantity Space idea from Naive Physics to reason about the effects of physical processes and their limits . The analysis is demonstrated on an example with practical importance, and further possibilities for applications are discussed .