Algorithm
The word "algorithm" itself derives from the 9th century mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, Latinized "Algoritmi". A partial formalization of what would become the modern concept of algorithm began with attempts to solve the Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem) posed by David Hilbert in 1928. Later formalizations were framed as attempts to define "effective calculability" or "effective method". Those formalizations included the Gödel–Herbrand–Kleene recursive functions of 1930, 1934 and 1935, Alonzo Church's lambda calculus of 1936, Emil Post's Formulation 1 of 1936, and Alan Turing's Turing machines of 1936–37 and 1939.
Algorithm
The concept of "algorithm" is also used to define the notion of decidability. That notion is central for explaining how formal systems come into being starting from a small set of axioms and rules. In logic, the time that an algorithm requires to complete cannot be measured, as it is not apparently related to our customary physical dimension. From such uncertainties, that characterize ongoing work, stems the unavailability of a definition of "algorithm" that suits both concrete (in some sense) and abstract usage of the term.