Etikett: Monte Carlo Methods

A mathematician friend of mine worked for the Navy on calculations involving the movement of sound waves through water. It’s a difficult problem, since the speed of sound varies with temperature and salinity. Being a mathematician to the core, he always wanted the exact answer. At times the Navy had to shake him by the […]

Monte Carlo Methods in Excel: Part 2 – Random Numbers All Monte Carlo methods rely on a source of random numbers. Most such sources would more precisely be called pseudorandom numbers, since a deterministic algorithm cannot, by definition, ever produce truly random numbers. If you Google “random numbers” you will encounter a daunting list of […]

If we toss a coin 1000 times, it is pretty easy to calculate the probability of tossing exactly 537 heads. For better or for worse, the real world rarely offers us such cut-and-dry calculations. What if we were trying to calculate neutron density in a critical mass of plutonium? A mathematically precise result is beyond […]