A Turing machine is an abstract theoretical machine that was first introduced by mathematician Alan Turing in 1936. It is considered to be the foundation of modern computing and is used in the study of computability and complexity theory.
A Turing machine consists of a tape divided into cells, each of which can hold a symbol from a finite set. The tape is assumed to be infinite in both directions. The machine has a head that can read the symbols on the tape and move left or right along the tape. The machine also has a finite set of states and a transition function that determines what action the machine takes based on the current state and the symbol under the head.
The basic operation of a Turing machine involves reading the symbol under the head, using the transition function to determine the next state and what symbol to write on the tape, and moving the head left or right along the tape. This process continues until the machine reaches a halting state.
The Turing machine is a powerful abstraction that can compute any function that can be computed by an algorithm. It is often used as a theoretical model for studying the limits of computation and the complexity of algorithms
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