Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Sorting algorithm - 5 items, 7 comparisons 
Name: jimmyp
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1995
Question:
I need a sorting algorithm to sort 5 items using only 7 comparisons. I remember seeing a similar problem somewhere in my undergraduate days, but cannot find it in my notes.

Replies:
Similar formulas exist for finding the roots of a quartic equation. Derivations are similar and may be found in some handbooks of math tables and formulas. It is well-known that such formulas cannot be found for quintic or higher degree polynomials in general.

tee


Click here to return to the Mathematics Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory