stuart@rochester.ARPA (11/14/86)
From: Stuart Friedberg <stuart>
While pure math types might sneer, the (mathematical) practice of
logistics undoubtedly had a far more significant, if less dramatic,
effect on the conduct of World War II than the atomic bomb and its
related mathematical developments.
The US Navy and similar organizations around the world needed very
sophisticated, and practical, approximations to what are now
understood to be computationally intractable optimization problems.
Research in scheduling problems, network flow problems, and queueing
theory got major impetus from the need to solve immense logistics
problems.
Improved ballistics tables may also have had a more pervasive effect
on the conduct of recent warfare than the use of nuclear weapons or
power. Certainly developments in aero- and hydro-dynamics since WW II
have!
Stu Friedberg {seismo, allegra}!rochester!stuart stuart@rochester