A model is a simplified, abstracted representation of an object or system that presents only the information needed by its user.
If I understand this definition correctly, then temperature, as used by a thermostat, is a model of a system: It abstracts away all the details about the energy of individual particles in the system, except for a single scalar value representing the average of all those energies.
If I understand this definition correctly, then temperature, as used by a thermostat, is a model of a system: It abstracts away all the details about the energy of individual particles in the system, except for a single scalar value representing the average of all those energies.
Yes, all of the measurements I can think of off-hand are basically one-dimensional models of a system / object.