Algorithm - anybody got a simple explanation? I sure don't.?

Answer 1

When I'm asked by a completely *non-mathematical* audience to explain an algorithm, I just tell them it's a "recipie with consistent results". I think that's as simple as you can get. "If you follow a cookie recipie, the result is cookies. The result is never apple pie. So the cookie recipie is an algorithm that produces cookies from ingredients."

If you have the benefit of an audience that understands functions and sets, I would say an algorithm is just an abstraction of a function. There is a set of valid inputs (which we could call the domain), and after a series of steps (the algorithm), there is an output. As long as the same input always generates the same output, you have a valid algorithm. So the simplest explanation to this audience would be "an abstraction of a function." Unfortunately you don't always have the benefit of this audience, and that's when you resort to cookies.

Answer 2

Hi,
Well, so far as I know, there is no unique definition of algorithm that everybody accepts.
Probably at least one person other than myself :-), would agree that the following is a reasonable definition:
A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem in a finite number of steps. Often the steps are repeated until they eventually terminate in an end-state.

FE