Logical Glue Blog Algorithms Rule The World

The word "algorithm", meaning a precise series of operations carried out to solve a problem, derives from the Latin translation of the name of the medieval Persian mathematician al-Khwārizmī. Many of us first encounter algorithms at school, where we are taught simple ones to solve mathematical problems such as long division or calculating the area of complex shapes. Although, in the digital age, the word algorithm has become closely associated with computers, for centuries they were tools for humans to use; a way to codify and communicate solutions to difficult tasks, so that others could-often laboriously-work through the steps and get the required result.