{"id":11830,"date":"2024-05-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=11830"},"modified":"2024-05-17T05:29:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T05:29:05","slug":"why-are-algorithms-called-algorithms-a-brief-history-of-the-persian-polymath-youve-likely-never-heard-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/why-are-algorithms-called-algorithms-a-brief-history-of-the-persian-polymath-youve-likely-never-heard-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you\u2019ve likely never heard\u00a0of"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n Debbie Passey<\/a>, The University of Melbourne<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without algorithms.<\/p>\n\n

So, we\u2019ve all heard of them, but where does the word \u201calgorithm\u201d even come from? <\/p>\n\n

Over 1,000 years before the internet and smartphone apps, Persian scientist and polymath Muhammad ibn M\u016bs\u0101 al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b invented the concept of algorithms.<\/p>\n\n

In fact, the word itself comes from the Latinised version of his name, \u201calgorithmi\u201d. And, as you might suspect, it\u2019s also related to algebra.<\/p>\n\n

Largely lost to time<\/h2>\n\n

Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b lived from 780 to 850 CE, during the Islamic Golden Age<\/a>. He is considered the \u201cfather of algebra<\/a>\u201d, and for some, the \u201cgrandfather of computer science<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Yet, few details are known about his life. Many of his original works in Arabic have been lost to time.<\/p>\n\n

It is believed al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b was born in the Khwarazm region<\/a> south of the Aral Sea in present-day Uzbekistan. He lived during the Abbasid Caliphate, which was a time of remarkable scientific progress in the Islamic Empire.<\/p>\n\n

Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b made important contributions<\/a> to mathematics, geography, astronomy and trigonometry. To help provide a more accurate world map, he corrected Alexandrian polymath Ptolemy\u2019s classic cartography book, Geographia.<\/p>\n\n

He produced calculations for tracking the movement of the Sun, Moon and planets. He also wrote about trigonometric functions and produced the first table of tangents.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"A<\/a>\n
\n There are no images of what al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b looked like, but in 1983 the Soviet Union issued a stamp in honour of his 1,200th birthday.<\/span>\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b was a scholar in the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah<\/a>) in Baghdad. At this intellectual hub<\/a>, scholars were translating knowledge from around the world into Arabic, synthesising it to make meaningful progress in a range of disciplines. This included mathematics, a field deeply connected to Islam<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The \u2018father of algebra\u2019<\/h2>\n\n

Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b was a polymath and a religious man. His scientific writings started with dedications to Allah and the Prophet Muhammad. And one of the major projects<\/a> Islamic mathematicians undertook at the House of Wisdom was to develop algebra. <\/p>\n\n

Around 830 CE, Caliph al-Ma\u2019mun<\/a> encouraged al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b to write a treatise on algebra<\/a>, Al-Jabr (or The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing). This became his most important work.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"A<\/a>\n
\n A page from The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.<\/span>\n World Digital Library<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

At this point, \u201calgebra\u201d had been around for hundreds of years, but al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b was the first to write a definitive book on it. His work was meant to be a practical teaching tool. Its Latin translation<\/a> was the basis for algebra textbooks in European universities until the 16th century. <\/p>\n\n

In the first part, he introduced the concepts and rules of algebra, and methods for calculating the volumes and areas of shapes. In the second part he provided real-life problems and worked out solutions, such as inheritance cases, the partition of land and calculations for trade.<\/p>\n\n

Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b didn\u2019t use modern-day mathematical notation with numbers and symbols. Instead, he wrote in simple prose<\/a> and employed geometric diagrams: <\/p>\n\n

\n

Four roots are equal to twenty, then one root is equal to five, and the square to be formed of it is twenty-five, or half the root is equal to ten.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

In modern-day notation we\u2019d write that like so:<\/p>\n\n

\n

4x = 20, x = 5, x2<\/sup> = 25, x \/ 2 = 10<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Grandfather of computer science<\/h2>\n\n

Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b\u2019s mathematical writings introduced the Hindu-Arabic numerals<\/a> to Western mathematicians. These are the ten symbols we all use today: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. <\/p>\n\n

The Hindu-Arabic numerals are important to the history of computing because they use the number zero and a base-ten decimal system. Importantly, this is the numeral system<\/a> that underpins modern computing technology.<\/p>\n\n

Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b\u2019s art of calculating mathematical problems laid the foundation for the concept of algorithms<\/a>. He provided the first detailed explanations for using decimal notation<\/a> to perform the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) and computing fractions.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"A<\/a>\n
\n The contrast between algorithmic computations and abacus computations, as shown in Margarita Philosophica (1517).<\/span>\n The Bavarian State Library<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

This was a more efficient computation method than using the abacus. To solve a mathematical equation, al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b systematically moved through a sequence of steps to find the answer. This is the underlying concept of an algorithm. <\/p>\n\n

Algorism<\/a>, a Medieval Latin term named after al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b, refers to the rules for performing arithmetic using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. Translated to Latin, al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b\u2019s book on Hindu numerals was titled Algorithmi de Numero Indorum.<\/p>\n\n

In the early 20th century, the word algorithm came into its current definition<\/a> and usage: \u201ca procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps; a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

Muhammad ibn M\u016bs\u0101 al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b played a central role in the development of mathematics and computer science as we know them today.<\/p>\n\n

The next time you use any digital technology \u2013 from your social media feed to your online bank account to your Spotify app \u2013 remember that none of it would be possible without the pioneering work of an ancient Persian polymath.\"The<\/p>\n\n

Debbie Passey<\/a>, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Debbie Passey, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to…\n","protected":false},"author":822,"featured_media":11876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[1390,129,614,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-11830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-history","8":"category-math-and-the-sciences","9":"tag-algorithm","10":"tag-mathematics","11":"tag-science-history","12":"tag-the-conversation","13":"cs-entry","14":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/822"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11831,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11830\/revisions\/11831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}