Hello Team incrEDIBLES,
As requested on the English 301 course website, I have written three definitions about a complex term commonly used in computer science. The term I have chosen is “recursion”. In order to practice my writing techniques I’ve composed parenthetical, sentence and expanded definitions, which I have included below.
Parenthetical: Recursion is like a picture within a picture within a picture.
Sentence: Recursion is a problem-solving method that involves breaking down a problem into smaller subproblems. This occurs until the subproblems are easy or small enough to be solved.
Expanded: Recursion is a problem-solving method that is present in a variety of disciplines, including: mathematics, computer science and art. Until the 1960s it was a controversial method in computer science because it wasn’t considered efficient or practical. However, times have changed and it’s now considered one of the central ideas of computer science.
Recursion involves breaking down a problem into smaller subproblems. This occurs until the subproblems are easy or small enough to be solved. Fittingly, the term “recursion” is derived from the Latin words “recursio” and “recurrere”, which translate to “return” and “to run back, return” respectively.
Perhaps, the most famous example of recursion is the art style known as the “Droste Effect”, as shown in Figure 1. It consists of a picture depicted in itself indefinitely until it isn’t possible to draw a smaller version of the picture. The smallest version is called the “base case”. Once the base case has been found, it can be used to find the next smallest version of the problem.
Figure 1
Another good example of recursion is the Fibonacci sequence. The Fibonacci sequence begins as follows: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and then continues forever. Each number is the sum of the two previous numbers. For example: five is the sum of two and three. Each number depends on a number before it.
Bibliography
Daylight, Edgar G. The Advent of Recursion in Programming, 1950s-1960s. Apr. 2010. University of Amsterdam, eprints.illc.uva.nl/383/1/PP-2010-04.text.pdf. Accessed 12 Jan. 2019.
“Recursion.” Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recursion. Accessed 12 Jan. 2019.
Recursive Image. startuplab, startuplab.io/post/recursion. Accessed 12 Jan. 2019.
Rubio-Sanchez, Manuel. Introduction to Recursive Programming. Boca Raton, CRC Press, 2018.
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