Abstract

Nature is not only a source of minerals and precious stones but is also a mine of algorithms. By observing and studying natural phenomena, computer algorithms can be extracted. In this note, a simple natural phenomenon is used to design a sorting algorithm for positive integers, called here Bead–Sort. The algorithm’s run–time complexity ranges from $O(1)$ to $O(S)$ ($S$ is the sum of the input integers) depending on the user’s perspective. Finally, three possible implementations are suggested.