Information / AI & Robotics

Algorithm (Euclid)

Euclid’s procedure for the greatest common divisor is one of the oldest known algorithms: a rule instead of a single case.

Around 300 BC Euclid described in the “Elements” a step-by-step procedure that always reaches its goal. The word algorithm comes from the scholar al-Khwarizmi (around 820), whose arithmetic book spread the Indo-Arabic number system. All software is ultimately a collection of such rules.