What is "diakoptics"

n. The act of breaking a problem down into components which can be solved independently before being joined back together to obtain a solution to the whole problem.

In systems analysis, Diakoptics (Greek dia–through + kopto–cut,tear) or the "Method of Tearing" involves breaking a (usually physical) problem down into subproblems which can be solved independently before being joined back together to obtain an exact solution to the whole problem. The term was introduced by Gabriel Kron in a series "Diakoptics — The Piecewise Solution of Large-Scale Systems" published in London, England by The Electrical Journal between June 7, 1957 and February 1959. The twenty-one installments were collected and published as a book of the same title in 1963. The term diakoptics was coined by Philip Stanley of the Union College Department of Philosophy.