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Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.
I'm Neil.
And I'm Sam.
What do shopping with a credit card, finding love through internet, dating, and waiting for the traffic lights to change, have in common?
Hmm, they all involve computers?
Good guess, Sam, but how exactly do those computers work?
The answer is that they all use algorithms,
sets of mathematical instructions which find solutions to problems.
Although they are often hidden, algorithms are all around us,
from mobile phone maps to home delivery pizza,
they play a big path of modern life, and they're the topic of this program.
A simple way to think of algorithms is as recipes.
To make pancakes, you mix flour, eggs, and milk,
then milk butter in a frying pan, and so on.
Computers do this in a more complicated way,
by repeating mathematical equations over and over again.
Equations are mathematical sentences showing how two things are equal.
They're similar to algorithms, and the most famous scientific equation of all,