What kind of humongous tasks do supercomputers do? What type of mathematical models can be so complex that it requires a computer close to $1B?

Question

What kind of humongous tasks do supercomputers do? What type of mathematical models can be so complex that it requires a computer close to $1B?

In: 244

Answer 1

While I don’t know every use for them, one is modeling the galaxy and universe.

Keeping track of every particle in the model; speed, direction, mass, energy/temperature. Then making sure that particle properly interacts with every other particle that it is tracking. . .It starts to build up.

It’s no so much that it’s overly complex, there’s just an insane number of calculations that need to be made, to move the model forward any amount of time.