The algorithm derived from the Latin word ‘algoritmi’ means a step-by-step procedure to generate the desired output from an input. Most people think that computer solves whatever problem is given to them, but that is partially correct. The algorithm does all the procedures to solve the problem. A computer is just a machine and you can rely on it for most of the problems but actual work is made by an algorithm.
Al-Khwārizmī, in
full Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, born in 780 in Baghdad and
died in 850, was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer
and a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. He is honored by the Father of
Algebra. In the Persian language, the word is Al-Khwārizmī, in Latin it
is algoritmi, and in the English language, the word is “Algorithm”. “Al” means “The” in Arabic.
In addition, the word
"algebra" is taken from part of the title of his most famous book “Al-Kitab
al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala,” translated as “The Compendious
Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.”
We know Al-jabr as Algebra
and Al-Khwārizmī as Algorithm.
Al-Khwarizmi also wrote a
treatise on Hindu-Arabic numerals. The Arabic text is lost but a Latin
translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum in English Al-Khwarizmi on the Hindu
Art of Reckoning gave rise to the word algorithm deriving from his name in the title.
Unfortunately, the Latin translation is known
to be much changed from al-Khwarizmi's original text (of which even the title
is unknown). The work describes the Hindu place-value system of numerals based
on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. The first use of zero as a placeholder in
positional base notation was probably due to al-Khwarizmi in this work. Methods
for arithmetical calculation are given, and a method to find square roots is
known to have been in the Arabic original although it is missing from the Latin
version. (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Al-Khwarizmi.html,
accessed 09-04-2021).
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