US Patent 7684972 Termination assessment of a computer simulation

A method is provided for assessing whether to terminate a computer-implemented simulation of a physical experiment. Computations associated with the computer-implemented simulation that model the physical experiment are executed and to determine if a desired outcome associated with the physical experiment will occur. The results of the computations are evaluated to determine if the results indicate that the desired outcome has occurred. If the desired outcome has not occurred, periodically the results of the computations are evaluated with respect to at least one negative indication that the desired outcome is not possible and thus not likely going to occur. If the at least one negative indication is present, the computations associated with the computer-implemented simulation is terminated.