Algorithms and Their Attributes

Abstract

All of us, in our lives and our work, come up against the need to solve problems—to perform purposive actions in order to achieve a required result, that is—every single day. Experience suggests that it is far easier to do this if the rules to be followed in reaching a solution are known in advance. These rules—these instructions—are commonly called algorithms. The introduction of a course entitled Basic Information Science and Computer Technology into all secondary educational institutions across the country from the beginning of the coming [1985/86] academic year (as envisoned in a resolution issued by the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers) and the widespread establishment of computer technology in the teaching process require teachers—and not only physics and mathematics teachers, either—to become computer literate, among all else. We hope that the Lessons for the Teacher [Uroki dlia uchitelia] series which we are now running (the first article of which, What is Information ...