Effective method

Definition

The definition of an effective method involves more than the method itself. In order for a method to be called effective, it must be considered with respect to a class of problems. Because of this, one method may be effective with respect to one class of problems and not be effective with respect to a different class.

A method is formally called effective for a class of problems when it satisfies these criteria:

• It consists of a finite number of exact, finite instructions.
• When it is applied to a problem from its class:
  • It always finishes (terminates) after a finite number of steps.
  • It always produces a correct answer.
• In principle, it can be done by a human without any aids except writing materials.
• Its instructions need only to be followed rigorously to succeed. In other words, it requires no ingenuity to succeed.^[3]

Optionally, it may also be required that the method never returns a result as if it were an answer when the method is applied to a problem from outside its class. Adding this requirement reduces the set of classes for which there is an effective method.

Algorithms

An effective method for calculating the values of a function is an algorithm. Functions for which an effective method exists are sometimes called effectively calculable.

Computable functions

Several independent efforts to give a formal characterization of effective calculability led to a variety of proposed definitions (general recursion, Turing machines, λ-calculus) that later were shown to be equivalent. The notion captured by these definitions is known as recursive or effective computability.

The Church–Turing thesis states that the two notions coincide: any number-theoretic function that is effectively calculable is recursively computable. As this is not a mathematical statement, it cannot be proven by a mathematical proof.

See also

• Decidability (logic)
• Decision problem
• Function problem
• Effective results in number theory
• Recursive set
• Undecidable problem

References

• S. C. Kleene (1967), Mathematical logic. Reprinted, Dover, 2002, ISBN 0-486-42533-9, pp. 233 ff., esp. p. 231.

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