Looking Outwards 7

This week I am looking at a YouTube video called “SEIZURE WARNING Pushing Sorts to their Limits”. Hyperbolic name aside, it is an hour long video where YouTuber Musicombo visualizes 79 different sorting algorithms. All the arrays sorted just contain integer values, up to either 2^14th (roughly 8 thousand) or 2^15th (roughly 16 thousand), in a completely random order. All the algorithms are doing is comparing two number values and seeing which one is larger than the other, until eventually the array is sorted correctly from 1 to their max number. However, how each algorithm goes about where in the array it chooses to compare a pair of numbers is where the variety and artistry comes in. Some are very simple, such as starting in the middle and going down, then starting in the middle of the rest of the unsorted section, so on and so forth, while some are much more intricate. The intricate ones are not always the fastest, but they create the more interesting patterns and visuals for sorting. Additionally the creator adds fun, arcade, Pac-Man esk sounds that make the entire process very pleasant as the cluttered noise becomes closer to a solid sequence, culminating when the final check runs successfully. The idea is relatively simple but the execution is so remarkable that it is just so satisfying to watch, so much so that the video has over 1.6 million views.

Musicombo