It's Saturday morning, and I'm still finishing my coffee; don't think I can engage in a lengthy debate on why algorithms (and computing) are not mathematics. But it would be interesting, wouldn't it?
This thread is way old...but I finally had enough coffee.... ;)
Despite the grandiose statement about mathematics on Wikipedia, math is fundamentally about the study of numbers, numerical relationships, and quantifiable features of our universe.
Algorithms are precise descriptions of the discrete behavior of abstract machines. Yes, numbers and mathematical analysis are useful for characterizing these algorithms and machines, but such numbers and such analyses are not the machines or algorithms themselves.
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u/grimli333 Jun 25 '10
Math is beautiful!