In our day-to-day life we perform activities by following certain sequence of steps. Examples of activities include getting ready for school, making breakfast, riding a bicycle, wearing a tie, solving a puzzle and so on. To complete each activity, we follow a sequence of steps.
Suppose following are the steps required for an activity ‘riding a bicycle’:
1) remove the bicycle from the stand,
2) sit on the seat of the bicycle,
3) start peddling,
4) use breaks whenever needed and
5) stop on reaching the destination.
Let us now find Greatest Common Divisor (GCD) of two numbers 45 and 54.
Note: GCD is the largest number that divides both the given numbers.
Step 1: Find the numbers (divisors) which can divide the given numbers
Divisors of 45 are: 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, and 45
Divisors of 54 are: 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18, 27, and 54
Step 2: Then find the largest common number from these two lists.
Therefore, GCD of 45 and 54 is 9
Hence, it is clear that we need to follow a sequence of steps to accomplish the task. Such a finite sequence of steps required to get the desired output is called an algorithm. It will lead to the desired result in a finite amount of time, if followed correctly. Algorithm has a definite beginning and a definite end, and consists of a finite number of steps.
