The Beginning of the Computer Era

Mathematical modelling was well established as a scientific branch at the time of the second world war. However, it is one thing to develop a mathematical model containing equations describing a physical process; it is quite another to find a solution that satisfies the equations. The most common type of mathematical models among all physical problems is the differential equation, and most often it has several independent variables, i.e., it is a partial differential equation. Over the centuries, mathematicians and physicists have made strong efforts to solve these problems, but for most realistic applications, it was simply a hopeless task. This state of affairs changed dramatically in the middle of the twentieth century. The electronic computer was invented.