Algorism

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Algorism comprises all of the rules of performing arithmetic computations using a decimal system for representing numbers in which numbers written using ten symbols having the values 0 through 9 are combined using a place-value system (positional notation), where each symbol has ten times the weight of the one to its right.

This system superseded earlier, more verbose, decimal systems where the symbols were different for each power of ten (and repeated instances gave the quantity of each power of ten) because at most ten symbols were needed for any range of numbers. The other systems needed a new symbol for every power of ten (and up to nine copies of each symbol for each of these).

Starting with the integer arithmetic developed in India using ten symbols in this way, Arabian mathematicians documented new arithmetic methods and made many other contributions to decimal arithmetic (including the concept of the decimal fractions as an extension of the notation, which in turn led to the notion of the decimal point).

The word algorism comes from the name al-Khwarizmi ("the one from Khwarizm") of an early 9th century Persian mathematician, possibly from what is now Khiva in western Uzbekistan.

The word devolved into the modified form algorithm, with a generalization of the meaning to any set of rules specifying a computational procedure. Occasionally algorism is also used in this generalized meaning, especially in older texts.

See also

• History of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system

References

• Oxford English Dictionary (first quote c1230CE, Chaucer c1391, and later quotes showing continuing usage since then)id:algorisma