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Algorism is the technique of performing basic arithmetic
Arithmetic

Arithmetic or arithmetics is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations....
 by writing numbers in place value form and applying a set of memorized rules and facts
Mathematical table

Before calculators were cheap and plentiful, people would use mathematical tables —lists of numbers showing the results of calculation with varying arguments— to simplify and drastically speed up computation....
 to the digits. One who practices algorism is known as an algorist. This system largely superseded earlier calculation systems that used a different set of symbols for each numerical magnitude
Magnitude (mathematics)

The magnitude of a mathematical object is its size: a property by which it can be larger or smaller than other objects of the same kind; in technical terms, an ordering of the class of objects to which it belongs....
 and in some cases required a device such as an abacus
Abacus

An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abacuses are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal....
.

Starting with the integer arithmetic developed in India using base 10 notation, Arabian mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
s documented new arithmetic methods and made many other contributions to decimal arithmetic.






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Algorism is the technique of performing basic arithmetic
Arithmetic

Arithmetic or arithmetics is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations....
 by writing numbers in place value form and applying a set of memorized rules and facts
Mathematical table

Before calculators were cheap and plentiful, people would use mathematical tables —lists of numbers showing the results of calculation with varying arguments— to simplify and drastically speed up computation....
 to the digits. One who practices algorism is known as an algorist. This system largely superseded earlier calculation systems that used a different set of symbols for each numerical magnitude
Magnitude (mathematics)

The magnitude of a mathematical object is its size: a property by which it can be larger or smaller than other objects of the same kind; in technical terms, an ordering of the class of objects to which it belongs....
 and in some cases required a device such as an abacus
Abacus

An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abacuses are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal....
.

Starting with the integer arithmetic developed in India using base 10 notation, Arabian mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
s documented new arithmetic methods and made many other contributions to decimal arithmetic. These included 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
Khiva

Khiva ; Alternative or historical names include Khorasam, Khoresm, Khwarezm, Khwarizm, , Khwarazm, Chiwa, and Chorezm) is the former capital of Khwarezmia and the Khanate of Khiva and lies in the present-day Xorazm Province of Uzbekistan....
 in western Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
. In English, it was first used about 1230 and then by Chaucer in 1391. Another early use of the word is from 1240, in a manual titled Carmen de Algorismo composed by Alexandre de Villedieu. It begins thus:

"Algorism is the art by which at present we use those Indian figures, which number two times five."

The word devolved into the modified form algorithm
Algorithm

In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
, 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

  • Hindu-Arabic numeral system
    Hindu-Arabic numeral system

    The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is a positional decimal numeral system first documented in ancient India no later than the ninth century, and later spread to the western world through Mathematics in medieval Islam....
  • History of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system
    History of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system

    The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is a place-value numeral system: the value of a digit depends on the place where it appears; the '2' in 205 is ten times greater than the '2' in 25....