Monte Carlo method algorithms are used in many different kinds of cases to analyze projects or models that are not responsive to deterministic analysis. For example, the Monte Carlo method can be used to look at the dispersion of liquids or gases to evaluate the structural properties of chemical elements or to help determine the probable outputs for a set of games or processes.

The Monte Carlo method is generally attributed to Stanislaw Ulam, who worked at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico in the 1940s. It was named after a casino because of the application of this type of algorithm to games of chance. It has since become an important part of mathematical analysis and was programmed into John von Neumann’s ENIAC computer shortly after its discovery.