Full transcript
0:01We think of an algorithm as something new,
0:03but the term actually dates back about 900 years.
0:13The word algorithm comes from the name
0:15of a Persian mathematical genius, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.
0:20He was born around 780 AD in the region now known as Uzbekistan.
0:26His name suggests he came from Khwarizm.
0:31Known as al-Khwarizmi, he was director in the House of Wisdom,
0:36an intellectual centre for scholars in 9th Century Baghdad.
0:40He made innovative contributions to mathematics, astronomy,
0:43geography and cartography,
0:45and wrote an influential book called
0:48Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning.
0:51300 years later, the book was rediscovered
0:54and translated into Latin.
0:56It introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals to the West,
0:59which eventually replaced the unwieldy Roman ones.
1:02The Hindu-Arabic number system, along with the decimal point,
1:06both described by al-Khwarizmi in his book, are the basis of the numbers
1:10we use throughout the world today.
1:13Al-Khwarizmi's name, when Latinised in the title of the book,
1:17became algoritmi.
1:19And this is the origin of the word algorithm.
1:23We also have al-Khwarizmi to thank for the word algebra,
1:28which comes from another of his works.
1:30His books revolutionised mathematics in the West,
1:34showing how complex problems
1:36could be broken down into simpler parts and solved.
1:40In medieval Latin, algorismus simply meant the decimal number system.
1:46By the 13th Century, it had become an English word and was used,
1:50for example, by Chaucer.
1:54But it wasn't until the late 19th Century
1:56that algorithm came to mean a set of step-by-step rules
1:59for solving a problem.
2:02In the early part of the 20th Century, Alan Turing,
2:06the British mathematician and computer scientist, worked out how,
2:10in theory, a machine could follow algorithmic instructions
2:14and solve complex mathematics.
2:18This was the birth of the computer age.
2:22During World War Two, he built a machine called the Bombe,
2:25which used algorithms to crack the Enigma code.
2:29Today algorithm is a fairly common term,
2:32even if sometimes you're not exactly sure what an algorithm does.
2:36Algorithms are everywhere now, helping us to get from A to B,
2:40driving internet searches, making recommendations of things
2:43for us to buy, watch or share.
2:46And predicting how we vote or who we fall in love with.
2:50This little word that originated in medieval Persia
2:55is gradually transforming our lives.
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