ABSTRACT
The Monte Carlo method (MCM), also known as the method of statistical trials, is the marriage of two major branches of theoretical physics: the probabilistic theory of random process dealing with Brownian motion or random-walk experiments and potential theory, which studies the equilibrium states of a homogeneous medium. Monte Carlo calculations require available sequences of numbers which appear to be drawn at random from particular probability distributions. Monte Carlo procedures give solutions which are averages over a number of tests. This chapter briefly introduces the concepts of expected value and variance, and utilizes the central limit theorem to arrive at an error estimate. A major limitation inherent with the standard Monte Carlo methods discussed is that they only permit single point calculations. In view of this limitation, several techniques have been proposed for using Monte Carlo for whole field computation. The popular ones are the shrinking boundary method and inscribed figure method.
