British Museum algorithm

The British Museum algorithm is a general approach to finding a solution by checking all possibilities one by one, beginning with the smallest. The term refers to a conceptual, not a practical, technique where the number of possibilities is enormous.

Newell, Shaw, and Simon called this procedure the British Museum algorithm
 * "... since it seemed to them as sensible as placing monkeys in front of typewriters in order to reproduce all the books in the British Museum."