Sorting Algorithms with Playing Cards

A hands-on course for learning sorting algorithms with a standard 52-card deck while comparing two different worlds of algorithmic cost: what is efficient for a computer and what is efficient for human hands at a table.

The current manuscript is Learner Draft 0.1. It is deliberately complete before it is polished: the first learner will print it, work through it with cards, and use that experience to drive the teaching edition.

Canonical deck order

All full-deck exercises use:

A–K ♠ → A–K ♥ → K–A ♣ → K–A ♦

Curriculum

1. Selection Sort
2. Insertion Sort
3. Bubble Sort
4. Concept Interlude: inversions, stability, in-place sorting, adaptiveness, cost models
5. Merge Sort
6. Quicksort
7. Quickselect
8. Heaps and Heapsort
9. Concept Interlude: the Ω(n log n) comparison-sorting lower bound
10. Counting Sort
11. Radix Sort
12. Bucket Sort
13. Shellsort
14. Timsort
15. Introsort
16. Synthesis and strategy selection

Project structure

• index.qmd — introduction, canonical ordering, and learning method
• part-1-simple-sorts.qmd — Selection, Insertion, Bubble, Concept Interlude I
• part-2-divide-partition-heaps.qmd — Merge, Quick, Quickselect, Heap, Concept Interlude II
• part-3-noncomparison-and-gaps.qmd — Counting, Radix, Bucket, Shell
• part-4-hybrids-and-synthesis.qmd — Timsort, Introsort, synthesis
• appendix.qmd — reference tables, vocabulary, printable experiment sheet, field-note prompts
• _quarto.yml — Quarto book configuration

Build the printable PDF

Install Quarto and a TeX distribution supported by Quarto, then from the repository directory run:

quarto render --to pdf

The generated book will appear under _book/.

For a browser version:

quarto render --to html

Status

Learner Draft 0.1 is a field-test manuscript, not a finished publication. The source is intentionally modular so lessons, exercises, diagrams, and explanatory interludes can be revised independently after actual use.

Suggested GitHub repository description

Learn sorting algorithms hands-on with a standard deck of playing cards, comparing physical and computational models of sorting.