Virtues and Limits of Potential Model

Abstract

The paper investigates the basic issues of the application of potential model. Within the framework of that, the author makes an attempt to review some of the essential problems of the model's functional principles and theoretical verification, as well some distinctiveness of its structure and special variations. The comprehensive knowledge of the model building helps to recognise the investigational problems between the space and the entities existing in it. The virtues and limits of the model don't appear through a direct opposition, but they are shown in an indirect way, according to the purpose of the author, by the exploration and valuation of the model's typical issues of use. By emphasizing the relationship between masses and distances, which can be confirm empirically, the potential model helps to discover those characteristics of the social structures, which are often hidden. The complex system of field of applications alludes to the variegation of the model and the potential concept, besides reveals its position and role in the spatial analysis especially in the investigation of spatial interactions.