Algorithms are one of the key components of computer science, but they go back to days long before computers. In “The Miller’s Tale” (1391), Geoffrey Chaucer makes reference to “augrim” stones, which would have been stones used in counting algorithms, but the term and concept go back several centuries even before Chaucer. Simply described, an algorithm is a sequence of actions (usually numeric) that, when performed in a certain order, will produce a specific result.
Such sequences of actions
can be written descriptively on paper, but they also can be written in code. ...
