Brute Force

Brute force may refer to any of several problem-solving methods involving the evaluation of multiple (or every) possible answer(s) for fitness. The term has also been used as a stage name, book title, etc.

In mathematics:

  • A problem solving technique where a series of possible answers are worked out and each possibility is tested for accuracy. This technique is particularly useful on multiple choice problems.
  • A problem solving technique using workaround methods such as scale diagrams instead of conventional algebra.
  • Proof by exhaustion or brute force method, a method of mathematical proof

Non-mathematical problem-solving methods:

  • Brute-force search, a trivial computer problem-solving technique
  • Brute-force attack, a method of defeating a cryptographic scheme by trying a large number of possibilities


Media and entertainment:

  • Brute Force (musician), the stage name of Stephen Friedland
  • Brute Force (book), a controversial work by historian John Ellis
  • Brute Force (1914 film), starring Harry Carey
  • Brute Force (1947 film), starring Burt Lancaster
  • Brute Force (video game), a video game
  • Brute Force (comics), Simon Furman’s comic about super-intelligent cyborg animals saving the environment

Famous quotes containing the words brute force, brute and/or force:

    “Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. And in the beginning was not a Word, but a chirrup.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    “When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc., stretching or contracting every speaker to certain rules of theirs ... I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural, as much as the voice of a brute or an interjection: first of all, mother tongue; and last of all, artificial or father tongue. Essentially your truest poetic sentence is as free and lawless as a lamb’s bleat.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “If you would feel the full force of a tempest, take up your residence on the top of Mount Washington, or at the Highland Light, in Truro.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)