Plural of algorism; systems or procedures for solving mathematical problems using a step-by-step process.
From Middle English and Old French 'algorisme', derived from the name of 9th-century Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi. The word originally referred specifically to the Arabic numeral system and the techniques for calculation using it, then evolved to mean any systematic computational procedure.
The word 'algorithm' that powers your phone and the internet comes directly from the name of one person—Al-Khwarizmi, a mathematician working in Baghdad over 1,000 years ago. His name got Latinized into 'algorismus' and eventually became the modern term for any step-by-step computational process, making him one of history's most digitally immortal figures.
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