spaghetti sort

noun

spaghetti sort

noun

Etymology Introduced by A. K. Dewdney in a Scientific American column.

1

Computing, Computing theory, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A linear-time algorithm for sorting a sequence of items, analogous to standing a number of strands of spaghetti of different lengths upright on a surface and noting the order in which they are encountered when lowering one's hand from above.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.