Algorithmic Problem Solving

In 1964 the word “algorithm” was not included in the newly published fifth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Today it is commonplace for ordinary people to read about “algorithms”, for example algorithms for detecting inappropriate or unusual use of the Internet, algorithms for improving car safety and algorithms for identifying and responding to gestures. The notion of an algorithm hardly needs any introduction in our modern computerised society.

It is not that algorithms have only recently come into existence. On the contrary, algorithms have been used for millennia. Algorithms are used, for example, in building and in measurement: an algorithm is used when tunnelling through a mountain to ensure that the two ends meet in the middle, and cartographers use algorithms to determine the height of mountains without having to climb up them. But, before the computer age, it does not seem to have been considered important or relevant to emphasise the algorithm being used.

1.1 ALGORITHMS

An algorithm is a well-defined procedure, consisting of a number of instructions that are executed in turn. In the past, algorithms were almost always executed by human beings, which may explain the earlier lack of emphasis on algorithms. After all, human beings are intelligent and cope well with imprecise or incomplete instructions. Nowadays, however, algorithms are being automated more and ...