Viz/CardSortMerge - Algoviz Wiki

Card Sorting Simulations -- Mergesort

Recommendation

Not Recommended

Link

http://gustavus.edu/academics/mcs/max/concabs/applets/sort/

Delivery Method

Java Applet

License

Language

English

Author

Max Hailperin

Institution

Gustavus Adolphus College

Project

StandAlone

RelationshipToProject

StandAlone

Works

Yes

Description

This is an example of a "virtual manipulative" in that it purposely mimics implementing merge sort using the physical manipulative of a deck of cards. The user moves one card at a time between "destination," "source," and "discard" piles.

Evaluation

A good idea within its intended purpose. It is a little awkward because it can be difficult to understand what you are supposed to do until you catch on. This AV focuses on the details of how values are moved around, which can be helpful for understanding how the merge operation works. Unfortunately, the restriction to three "piles" makes it difficult to grasp how the sublists are sorted. It can also be a little difficult to understand what you are supposed to do until you catch on. A variant on this AV that focussed just on merge might do a good job of explaining merge. But I think its really hard to understand Mergesort from this presentation. This applet is paired with a similar implementation for Selection Sort, with one purpose being to see how Mergesort is far more efficient than Selection Sort. The Mergesort implementation suffers from a similar problem as does the Selection Sort implementation: To follow the "virtual manipulative" model that mimics moving cards around, it is not implementing the "real" algorithm that the computer would implement. Instead, its been altered a bit to fit into 3 piles of cards. Again, you get the right feel for merging, but its not so accurate a portrayal of the interrelationships between the various sublists.

ActivityLevel

GoodFor

Lecture Aid

Screenshots

Videos

References

HowToUse

First Visited

2008-03-17

Last Visited

2008-03-17

Last Updated