Algorithms For Dummies

Obtaining a historical basis

You can boil dynamic programming down to having an algorithm remember the 

previous problem results where you’d otherwise have to perform the same calcu-

lation repeatedly. Even though dynamic programming might appear to be quite 

complex, the implementation is actually straightforward. However, it does have 

some interesting historical origins.

Bellman described the name as the result of necessity and convenience in his 

autobiography, In the Eye of the Hurricane. He writes that the name choice was a 

way to hide the true nature of his research at the RAND Corporation (a research 

and development institution funded by both the U.S. government and private 

financers) from Charles Erwin Wilson, the Secretary of Defense under the Eisen-

hower presidency. Cloaking the true nature of his research helped Bellman remain 

employed at the RAND Corporation. You can read his explanation in more detail in 

the excerpt at: 

http://smo.sogang.ac.kr/doc/dy_birth.pdf

. Some researchers 

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CHAPTER 16