The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Computer scientists often deal with abstract problems that are hard to comprehend, but an exciting new algorithm matters to anyone who ...

A formula used to reorder data into a new sequence. Like all complicated problems, there are many solutions that can achieve the same results, and one sort algorithm can re-sequence data faster than ...

A sorting technique that sequences a list by continuously dividing the list into two parts and moving the lower items to one side and the higher items to the other. It starts by picking one item in ...

The library sorting problem is used across computer science for organizing far more than just books. A new solution is less than a page-width away from the theoretical ideal. Computer scientists often ...

When you’re trying to learn how an algorithm works, it’s not always easy to visualize what’s going on. Well, except for maybe binary sort, thanks to the phone book. Professor [thatguyer] is a computer ...

In this module the student will learn the very basics of algorithms through three examples: insertion sort (sort an array in ascending/descending order); binary search: search whether an element is ...