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Algorithm |
algorithm |
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2021-11-20T07:28 |
An "algorithm" is simply a set of instructions that is to be followed in order. The word came from the Persian mathematician al-Khwārizmī, author of ninth-century book of techniques for doing mathematics by hand. Khwārizmī's book "al-Jabr wa'l-Muqābala" where the word "al-Jabr" provided the source of our word "algebra."
However, the earliest known algorithms predate the work of al-Khwārizmī. A four-thousand-year-old Sumerian clay tablet found near Baghdad describes a scheme for long division written in cuneiform script1.
"But algorithm are not confined to mathematics alone. When you cook bread from a recipe, you're following an algorithm. When you knit a sweater from a pattern, you're following an algorithm. When you put a sharp edge on a piece of flint by executing a precise sequence of strikes with the end of an antler--a key step in making fine stone tools--you're following an algorithm. Algorithms have been a part of human technology ever since the Stone Age," wrote Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths2.
<div class="tldr rounded shadow-2xl">
<h2>TL;DR</h2>
<p>
An "algorithm" is simply a set of instructions that is to be followed in
order.
</p>
</div>
Footnotes
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_mathematics "Babylonian Mathematics" ↩
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Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths - Introduction ↩