Algorithms are everywhere. But what, exactly, are they? Where did they come from?
The general definition of “algorithm” is “a step by step procedure for solving a problem.”
For centuries, the only people who talked about algorithms were mathematicians. They originated with ancient Middle Eastern scholars and were brought to the west by Persian polymath Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.
How? He wrote a book in the mid 9th century called: “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing” that is widely recognized as the world’s first algebra textbook. In fact, one of the words in the Arabic version of its very long title was “Al-Jabr.”
That book was translated into Latin, exposing western scholars to the relatively new Hindu-Arabic way of representing numbers with symbols (0-9). It also explained how operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division could be used to break complex equations down into smaller parts that could be solved and re-composed to find the ultimate answer.
Despite what most middle schoolers (and some adults!) think, this “new math” was far better and faster than the old way of solving problems. Algebra > Abacus is 100% true.
But what about the word “algorithm” itself? Where did that come from?
Medieval Latin.
Westerners tried to name the Hindu-Arabic calculation technique after the man who brought it to them – Mr. al-Khwarizmi. Unfortunately, their ability to pronounce foreign names left much to be desired. Somehow “al-Khuwārizmi” came out as “algorismus,” which then evolved into “algorithm” in the late 1600s.
Fun fact: Algorithms don’t just have a father. They have a mother, too. British mathematician Ada Lovelace. She was the first person to design algorithms for use with what we now call a “computer.”
