The _________ search algorithm steps sequentially through an array, comparing each item with the search value.

Question: Explain the step-by-step procedure of the Linear Search Algorithm used to find if a search value exists in an array. Answer: The Linear Search Algorithm follows these steps: 1. Understand the problem and input, which consists of an array and a search value. 2. Analyze the Linear Search Algorithm, which starts at the beginning of the array and compares each element with the search value. 3. Initialize a variable, 'index', starting at 0, to track the current position in the array. 4. Create a loop that iterates through the array until the end is reached or the search value is found. Update the 'index' variable by 1 with each iteration. 5. Compare the search value with the element at the current index. If they match, break the loop. 6. If the loop terminates because the search value was found, return the index of the matching element. If the loop iterates through the entire array without finding the search value, return a special value (e.g., -1) to indicate the search value is not present in the array.