Editing Operations research (section)

===Historical origins===
In the 17th century, mathematicians [[Blaise Pascal]] and [[Christiaan Huygens]] solved problems involving sometimes complex decisions ([[problem of points]]) by using [[Game theory|game-theoretic]] ideas and [[expected value]]s; others, such as [[Pierre de Fermat]] and [[Jacob Bernoulli]], solved these types of problems using [[combinatorics|combinatorial reasoning]] instead.<ref>Shafer, G. (2018). ''Pascal's and Huygens's game-theoretic foundations for probability''. [http://probabilityandfinance.com/articles/53.pdf]</ref> [[Charles Babbage]]'s research into the cost of transportation and sorting of mail led to England's [[Uniform Penny Post|universal "Penny Post"]] in 1840, and to studies into the dynamical behaviour of railway vehicles in defence of the [[Great Western Railway|GWR]]'s broad gauge.<ref>M.S. Sodhi, "What about the 'O' in O.R.?" OR/MS Today, December, 2007, p. 12, http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-12-07/frqed.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714004205/http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-12-07/frqed.html |date=14 July 2009 }}</ref> Beginning in the 20th century, study of inventory management could be considered{{by whom|date=November 2019}} the origin of modern operations research with [[economic order quantity]] developed by [[Ford W. Harris]] in 1913. Operational research may{{original research inline|date=November 2019}} have originated in the efforts of military planners during [[World War I]] (convoy theory and [[Lanchester's laws]]). [[Percy Bridgman]] brought operational research to bear on problems in physics in the 1920s and would later attempt to extend these to the social sciences.<ref>P. W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1927.</ref>

Modern operational research originated at the [[Telecommunications Research Establishment|Bawdsey Research Station]] in the UK in 1937 as the result of an initiative of the station's superintendent, [[Albert Percival Rowe|A. P. Rowe]] and [[Robert Watson-Watt]].<ref name="Beginning">{{cite journal |last1=Zuckerman |first1=Solly |title=In the Beginning -- And Later |journal=OR |date=1964 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=287–292 |doi=10.2307/3007115 |jstor=3007115 |issn=1473-2858}}</ref> Rowe conceived the idea as a means to analyse and improve the working of the UK's [[early-warning radar]] system, code-named "[[Chain Home]]" (CH). Initially, Rowe analysed the operating of the radar equipment and its communication networks, expanding later to include the operating personnel's behaviour. This revealed unappreciated limitations of the CH network and allowed remedial action to be taken.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url= https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/682073/operations-research/68171/History#ref22348 |title= operations research (industrial engineering) :: History – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |encyclopedia= Britannica.com |access-date= 13 November 2011}}</ref>

Scientists in the United Kingdom (including [[Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett|Patrick Blackett]] (later Lord Blackett OM PRS), [[Cecil Gordon (scientist)|Cecil Gordon]], [[Solly Zuckerman, Baron Zuckerman|Solly Zuckerman]], (later Baron Zuckerman OM, KCB, FRS), [[Conrad Hal Waddington|C. H. Waddington]], [[Owen Wansbrough-Jones]], [[Frank Yates]], [[Jacob Bronowski]] and [[Freeman Dyson]]), and in the United States ([[George Dantzig]]) looked for ways to make better decisions in such areas as [[logistics]] and training schedules.