An algorithm is a sequence of operations carried out systematically to yield a result in a finite number of steps. An algorithm does not have to be expressed in any particular form or language, and so baking recipes, assembly manuals, computer programs, and street directions can all be considered algorithms.

The word algorithm comes from the name of the ancient Arabian mathematician Mohammed ibn-Musa Al-Khowarizmi, who lived from about 780 to 850. Al-Khowarizmi was born in central Asia in what is now known as Uzbekistan, but he did most of his important work in Baghdad, now in Iraq. He is generally considered to be the father of modern algebra, and he believed that any mathematical problem, now matter how complex, could be solved if it were broken into smaller steps and each step solved in isolation. Modern day computing is fundamentally algorithmic in nature, because computer programs work by carrying...