As always, the fastest way to perform a calculation is to as much work as possible when the clock isn't running. In this case, pre-compute every possible soluti

As always, the fastest way to perform a calculation is to as much work as possible when the clock isn't running. In this case, pre-compute every possible solution months ahead of time, and have a cabinet full of look-up tables. Another historical sidenote: the American approach to artillery directly drove the development of modern computers. ENIAC, the first digital computer, was originally commissioned as a project for computing gunnery tables. Although, because von Neumann got wind of it, its first actual computation was (I think) numeric integration of fluid dynamics for the H-bomb.