See Also
The name “Monte Carlo” was coined by Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann during the Manhattan Project in the 1940s.
The name comes from the famous Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco, known for its gambling and games of chance like roulette. The connection is quite simple:
-
Randomness: Just as casino games rely on random outcomes (like where the ball lands on a roulette wheel or the roll of dice), the Monte Carlo method relies heavily on repeated random sampling to solve problems.
-
Uncertainty: Both gambling and complex scientific problems involve a degree of uncertainty. The Monte Carlo method embraces this uncertainty by simulating many random scenarios to understand the range and probability of possible outcomes, rather than trying to find one single, exact deterministic solution.
Ulam himself developed the idea while recovering from an illness and playing solitaire. He realized that it would be far easier to just play many games of solitaire and see how often he won, rather than trying to mathematically calculate all the probabilities and combinations. This insight, combining an element of chance to solve a problem, led to the name.