Recursion

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A visual form of recursion is the Droste effect. It leads to self-similar images.
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A visual form of recursion is the Droste effect. It leads to self-similar images.

Recursion is a word from mathematics. In mathematics and in computer science, it is used to define a thing, usually a function. Unlike with normal definitions, the function to be defined can be used to define it.

Recursion consists of two steps:

  1. A base hypothesis, to start with
  2. One or more rules to break down the base hypothesis into simpler cases.


An exmple might be how to define ancestor, using recursion:

  1. A person's parents are his or her ancestors (base hypothesis)
  2. The ancestors of a person's ancestors are also ancestors of the person being considered (recursion step).

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