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Reference.org
British Museum algorithm
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<p>The British Museum algorithm is a general approach to finding a solution by checking all possibilities one by one, beginning with the smallest. The term refers to a conceptual, not a practical, technique where the number of possibilities is enormous. </p><p>Newell, Shaw, and Simon called this procedure the British Museum algorithm </p> "... since it seemed to them as sensible as <a href="/facts/Infinite_monkey_theorem/rE8Rchab">placing monkeys in front of typewriters</a> in order to reproduce all the books in the <a href="/facts/British_Museum/mq5LadWV">British Museum</a>."