Monte Carlo Simulation
Monte Carlo Method
Algorithmic approach for building simulations and predictive models where the intervention of random variables makes them hard to predict in more standard models.
Origin
Developed in the mid-1940s during the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos by mathematician Stanisław Ulam and John von Neumann for nuclear weapons research. Ulam conceived the idea in 1946 while convalescing and playing solitaire, pondering the probability that a Canfield layout would succeed. He described it to von Neumann, who programmed the ENIAC computer with Nicholas Metropolis to perform the first fully automated Monte Carlo calculations in spring 1948. Metropolis suggested the name "Monte Carlo," referencing the Monaco casino where Ulam's uncle gambled. Metropolis and Ulam published the first unclassified paper in 1949.