Dante Williams
FRS Ideas In C. Science
Zhaojun Bai
March 13, 2013

                        Algorithmics vs. Computer Science

Oftentimes the study of algorithms is often just cast aside as one part, of the many areas of computer science. It gets thrown into this pool of topics, such as programming language, computation theory, and various others, that really does not  give the amount of credit, where credit is due, to the algorithm. As the backbone of computer science, the algorithm is an extremely useful tool, an ordered list of procedures, that tells the computer what it needs to do. Computer’s are used for primary functions and they use different algorithms to execute these functions. Unfortunately however, algorithms are often seen as an indistinguishable part of computer science. This limits the applications of the algorithm and generalizes this idea into one area. In actuality it can be applied to much more than just computers.
        Algorithms were first used thousands of years ago as tools to solve mathematical equations. One of the first detailed accounts of the algorithm, where the term algorithm is derived from , occured in the 9th century. Used by the Persian Muslim mathematician  Al-Khwārizmī, and known more formally in Hindu-Arabic as algorism, it was  a method to solve basic arithmetic by applying sets of memorized rules and facts to numbers. This is more than a thousand years before the first computers started appearing. In essence ,it can be said that computers are just modern and extremely effective applications of the algorithm.
        Although, there is no universally accepted definition of what the algorithm is, it can be thought of as a finite set of step-by-step instructions that produces a result or solves some sort of problem (basically a procedure that has to end eventually.) By this definition, an algorithm can be seen as more than just an area in computer science. This definition shows that the algorithm can be applied to most sciences and technologies. Whether it be helpful to a person who studies business or a person pursuing a career in physics, the algorithm can just be seen as a logistical approach to solving problems that arise in the world.

However imperative the algorithm has been to computers, it is not just a give and take relationship between the two. Without the application of the algorithm to computer science, the algorithm would not have developed as much as it did into the effective tool that can now be seen as a harbinger to the technological age and basically to a more advanced future itself. Through computer science the algorithm has been able to flourish and evolve to greater heights, and even though the name computer science is misleading (since it deals with much more general ideas than just those for computers), it is a great way to utilize algorithmics.