OPTIMIZATION AND COMPUTERS
It is generally accepted that without computers, optimization would not be what they are today.
Earlier mathematical models (such as calculus, Lagrange multipliers) relied on sophistication of technique to solve the problem classes for which they were suited.
Methods of mathematical optimization (e.g., Linear Programming) rely far less on mathematical sophistication than they do on an unusual adaptibility to the mode of solution inherent in the modern digital computer.
Particularly striking is the simplicity of these new methods of mathematics coupled with their iterative processes (i.e., the repeated performance of a relatively simple set of operations)