A Word That Sounds Harder Than It Is
"Algorithm" turns up constantly in talk about computers, apps, and the internet, and it can sound forbiddingly technical. In truth, the idea is simple and very old. An algorithm is just a precise, step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or completing a task. It is a list of instructions clear enough that following them exactly will always lead to the result.
A Recipe Is an Algorithm
A good everyday example is a cooking recipe. A recipe takes some inputs, the ingredients, and gives a sequence of steps: mix this, heat that, wait ten minutes. Follow the steps faithfully and you reliably end up with the dish. An algorithm is the same notion applied to any task. The instructions for long division you learned at school, or the steps for tying your shoes, are also algorithms: ordered, unambiguous, and repeatable.
Why Computers Live on Them
Computers cannot improvise. They can only follow instructions, exactly and in order. So before a computer can do anything useful, the task has to be broken down into an algorithm: a sequence of precise steps it can carry out. When programmers write code, they are really turning an algorithm into a language the computer can execute. Sorting a list of names, finding the shortest route on a map, or deciding which posts to show you are all driven by algorithms working behind the scenes.
An Old Idea With an Old Name
The word itself comes from the name of a Persian mathematician, al-Khwarizmi, who lived more than a thousand years ago and wrote influential works on solving problems by methodical steps. So while we now link algorithms with modern technology, the underlying idea, of solving problems through a fixed sequence of steps, is far older than any computer.
Source
This article was written using information from Wikipedia.