What the heck is recursive?

recursive: repeats

Going up a stairwell is a recursion each step.
knitting is a recursive process.

Recursion refers to a process or function that calls itself repeatedly. In other words, it is a way of solving a problem by breaking it down into smaller, similar subproblems.

For example, when you go up a stairwell, each step you take can be seen as a recursive process. You start at the bottom and move up one step at a time until you reach the top. Each step is similar to the previous one, and you keep repeating the process until you reach your goal.

Similarly, knitting can also be considered a recursive process. When you knit, you start with a certain number of stitches and repeat a set of instructions to create a pattern. You continue repeating these instructions, which involve adding or removing stitches, until you complete the project. Each repetition builds upon the previous one, and the process continues until you finish knitting the desired item.

In programming, recursion is commonly used to solve problems that can be divided into smaller, identical subproblems. By calling the same function within itself, these subproblems are solved individually until the base case is reached, which terminates the recursion.

To understand recursion better, it can be helpful to analyze the base case (the terminating condition), the recursive case (steps taken to solve the problem), and the combination of the results from each recursive call. By breaking down the problem into smaller parts and utilizing recursion, complex tasks can often be tackled more efficiently and elegantly.