We are sometimes unsure of how an algorithm works, but it is a word we use regularly. Nearly all aspects of modern day life are algorithms. Such as transporting, when recommending goods,romantic relationships, internet searches, and voting results.
In the early 20th century, the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing theorized how, in theory, a machine might obey algorithmic instructions and solve complex mathematics. The era of computers began at this time. He created the BOM, a device that used algorithms to decipher the enigma code during World War II, which has been around till now.
Algorithms may be seen as new, but they started around 900 years ago. In the year around 780 AD in Khawarizmi, which is now the modern day known Uzbekistan, there lived a man by the name of Mohammed ibn Musa al-Khawarizmi. He was a well known Persian mathematical genius who was the director of an intellectual and wisdom center for scholarships in Baghdad back in the 9th century.
The numbers that are used now all across the world are based on the decimal point and the Hindu-Arabic number system, both of which are elucidated by al-Khawarizmi in his work. When the name of Al-Khawarizmi was Latinized for the book’s title, which was later uncovered and republished in Latin 300 years later, it became Al-Ghawarizmi, and here is where the term “algorithm” first surfaced.
Al-Khawarizmi is also to be credited for the invention of the word algebra, which comes from one of his earlier works.
Al-Khawarizmi was also the publisher of a widely read book concerning the Hindu art of reckoning. Through these Hindu-Arabic numerals, the West was introduced. Eventually replacing the cumbersome Roman ones that were in use at the time.
His works have transformed mathematics in the West by demonstrating how challenging issues might be reduced to their most basic components and addressed. The word algorithmus merely signified the decimal number system in medieval Latin. It was a word that was used in English by the 13th century, including by Chaucer. However, the term “algorithm” didn’t start to be used to refer to a set of instructions for solving a problem until the late 19th century.
This tiny term, which has its roots in medieval Persia, is gradually altering our way of life.
Interesting