Quote:
Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman
Good maths, and the cruise missile flies through the window of the terrorist's bedroom, hitting his bed with a small explosive charge, thereby despatching him to the hereafter.
Bad maths; a large explosive charge delivered to the target inaccurately, with massive casualties to non-combatants.
"Money forms the sinews of war" (and also good mathematics!!)
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This is an example where Game Theory is applied.
The ideal "payoff" (a term used in Game theory) is the missile strikes the target, kills all the terrorists with no collateral damage to the non combatants.
The least ideal payoff is the missile completely misses the target, none of the terrorists are killed, non combatants are killed, and the incident creates a breeding ground for more terrorists.
Then there is in-between case, some terrorists and some non combatants are killed in the strike.
Each case has a particular payoff, game theory analyses whether the ends justifies the means from a purely clinical viewpoint, without moral or ethical considerations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffW1
Well,
The application of maths to war goes back further. Many know of Bletchley Park, Alan Turing and the code cracking that went on there. I've always found that morbidly fascinating after having to study Operations Research (similar sort of thing) in my misspent youth.
Some cruder things this sort of analysis was used for:
- how deep to set the depth charges, the better to puree people
- was it better to have many machine guns or fewer but powerful cannon on a Spitfire, the better to ventilate people
- how far apart to put the land mines (ghastly) the better to blow people up (or yourself, sometimes)
- what was the optimum number of ships in a convoy, the better to avoid getting sunk
- and more, sadly
On this Anzac weekend, I wish they had analysed whether it was better to shoot or talk.
To all those who did not come home...  |
One of the earliest applications of mathematics to war was calculation of artillery trajectories in the 16th century, in particular when the target was at a higher elevation than the artillery pieces.
This was particularly impressive given it was done a 150 years before Newton and the birth of modern physics.
Regards
Steven