What are the characteristics of an algorithm?

Question

What are the characteristics of an algorithm

Answer 1

Algorithm
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia - Cite This Source

algorithmăl′ gərĭth̶′′ əm or algorism–rĭz′′ əm [for Al-Khowarizmi], a clearly defined procedure for obtaining the solution to a general type of problem, often numerical. Much of ordinary arithmetic as traditionally taught consists of algorithms involving the fundamental operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. An example of an algorithm is the common procedure for division, e.g., the division of 1,347 by 8, in which the remainders of partial divisions are carried to the next digit or digits; in this case the remainder of 5 in the division of 13 by 8 is placed in front of the 4, and 8 is then divided into 54. The software that instructs modern computers embodies algorithms, often of great sophistication.

Answer 2

Characteristics Of Algorithm

Answer 3

Here are some characteristics I can remember:
Finiteness:
- terminates after a finite number of steps
Definiteness:
-rigorously and unambiguously specified
Input:
-valid inputs are clearly specified
Output:
- can be proved to produce the correct output given a valid input
Effectiveness:
- steps are sufficiently simple and basic.

And perhaps the most important: GENERAL:
You don't create an algorithm to reslve a specific problem
(like what is 3+2=?), you create an algorithm to solve a
general class of problems (like what is a+b=? when you know a and b).

Hope it was useful.

Answer 4

1. "algorithm \AL-guh-RITH-uhm\, noun:

A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem in a finite number of steps that often involves repetition of an operation."

2. "Characteristics of the Algorithm

a. All faces are triangles.

b. What happens, when 4 points are co-planar or almost co-planar?

c. Complexity:

Dinesh Manocha
Mon Feb 23 01:23:15 EST 1998"

Answer 5

3-D Incremental Algorithm
Initialize to the tetrahedron .

for do
for each face f of do
Compute volume of the tetrahedron determined by f and .
Mark f visible, if the volume > 0.
if no faces are visible
then Discard (it is inside ).
else
for each border edge e of do
Construct cone face determined by e and .
for each visible face f do
Delete f.
Update
.

Volume of a tetrahedron, spanned by 4 points, , , .



In this case, we are only interested in computing the sign of V.


Characteristics of the Algorithm

All faces are triangles.

What happens, when 4 points are co-planar or almost co-planar?

Complexity:

Handling Degeneracies with Perturbation
Generically speaking, almost all the input models should not have degeneracies. However, this is not the case in practice. In the case of 3D convex hulls, all degeneracies boil down to the fact that four or more input points are co-planar. To handle such cases, many algorithms use perturbation based approaches. The basic idea is perturb each point as:



is a symbolic constant. We plug in the four perturbed points into the determinant formulation and compute its sign. The determinant is polynomial in . If the four points are co-planar, the determinant has no constant term and its lowest degree term is used to resolve the degeneracy. In many practical applications, people use random numerical values for . In such cases, the algorithm computes the convex hull of and replaces it by 's. More details cab be found in:

Incremental Algorithm
It is similar to the 2D algorithm. At the iteration, compute . Let . First decide whether . If , compute the tangent cone from to , where apex is , and construct the new hull.

Overview of the Algorithm

To check whether , we are computing the volume of a tetrahedron defined by each face f of & .

Based on that test we determine whether the interior of any face is visible from .

Compute all edges e, adjacent to two faces, one of which is visible from , and one of which is not.

All edges at the border of a visible region are the edges of the tangent cone.

Answer 6

An algorithm is a formula that has a specific ending point. Most are formula to express certian characteristics in programming, but can also be expressed in the form of language.

Answer 7

an algorithm is a worker's model , i.e. , it is a set of statements that help you to understand the problem easily. the following may be considered to be the characteristics of an algorithm :

1. it should be unambiguous ( i.e , easily indestandable )
2. it should be finite ( i.e, limited no. of steps )
3. if it is implemented it should execute within a short time (ie, time complexity should be considered )
4. the space it occupys should be minimum ( ie, space complexity )
5. generally it is written in a simple language ( ie, its always english )

in case you need more info regarding algorithms & how to write them refer some data structures book.

Answer 8

Look at the windows works. It makes operations intuitive and simple. This is the best algorithm i can say.

Answer 9

An algorithm is a logical model of a process. Or maybe better said that an algorithm is an outline to a solution, steps to take to lead to a conclusion. An algorithm to a computer program could look like this:

if this happens, I'm going to do this.
elseif that didn't happen but this does, then I'll do this.
else, I'm going to do that!

In code it could look like this:

if($flag)
{
print "hello world\n";
}
elsif($next_flag)
{
print "goodbye world\n";
}
else
{
print "I SURVIVED!!!|n";
}

Answer 10

>Algorithms should be as simple as they can be
>Their complexity should be possibly less
>They should be defined so easy that whomsoever implementing it will manage to write the code very properly according to the algorithm.