The August 29th assigned reading entitled “The New Religion of Risk Management” (by Peter Bernstein, March-April 1996 issue of Harvard Business Review) offers a concise overview of the same author’s 1996 book entitled “Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk“. An intriguing excerpt from page 33 of “Against the Gods” elucidates the historical roots of the term “algorithm.” An intriguing excerpt from page 33 of “Against the Gods” elucidates the historical roots of the word “algorithm.”
“The earliest known work in Arabic arithmetic was written by alKhowarizmi, a mathematician who lived around 825, some four hundred years before Fibonacci. Although few beneficiaries of his work are likely to have heard of him, most of us know of him indirectly. Try saying “alKhowarizmi” fast. That’s where we get the word “algorithm,” which means rules for computing.”
