Recursion and its culture

Bassy · 06-19-2007, 03:49 PM

Hallo! The thing is that I have a teacher in college who is compiting for a teacher's place in the faculty and in the contest a guy from the jury asked him "who invented the recursion concept in general? (for mathematics and computer sciences)" So he asked it to me and I got

so if anyone knows please! cuz' it doesn't seem to appear anywhere!!!!

Vielen Dank!

slackhack · 06-19-2007, 03:57 PM

i'll guess isaac newton. if not him, then probably one of those crazy greeks, like zeno or pythagorus or someone.

nx5000 · 06-19-2007, 04:25 PM

Giuseppe Peano?

ErrorBound · 06-19-2007, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Numerical algorithms are at least as old as the Egyptian Rhind papyrus (c. 1650 BC), which describes a root-finding method for solving a simple equation. Ancient Greek mathematicians made many further advancements in numerical methods. In particular, Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 400–350 BC) created and Archimedes (c. 285–212/211 BC) perfected the method of exhaustion for calculating lengths, areas, and volumes...

-- http://www.britannica.com/eb/article...rical-analysis