Math & science · 1946
Monte Carlo method
Ulam and von Neumann solve hard problems by random sampling on a computer.
Devised at Los Alamos for neutron diffusion and run on ENIAC in 1948, it now powers simulation in physics, finance, climate and AI.
What it built on 2
What it led to 2
Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
Fastest computer in the world Latest: 2.2×10¹⁸ operations per second (2026) Source: Wikipedia: List of fastest computers; Wikipedia: History of supercomputing
Fastest supercomputer Latest: 1.81B GFLOP/s (2025) Source: Our World in Data