spaghetti sort
nounEtymology 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.