Merge Sort — Divide, Conquer, Merge

Description

Visualizes the classic merge sort algorithm on an 8-element array [5,3,8,1,9,2,7,4]. The animation shows the recursive divide phase as a tree splitting down to individual elements, then the merge phase rebuilding sorted subarrays from the bottom up. Complexity is displayed as O(n log n).

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Phases

#	Phase Name	Duration	Description
1	Intro	3s	Title and initial array displayed
2	Divide Phase	18s	Array recursively splits in half, forming a tree structure downward
3	Merge Phase	22s	Pairs merge in sorted order, building back up the tree
4	Complexity	5s	O(n log n) formula displayed with annotation
5	Outro	5s	Final sorted array highlighted

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Layout

+--------------------------------------------------+
|  Title: Merge Sort — Divide, Conquer, Merge      |
+--------------------------------------------------+
|                                                  |
|  [5][3][8][1][9][2][7][4]   <- Level 0 (root)   |
|                                                  |
|  [5][3][8][1]  [9][2][7][4] <- Level 1           |
|                                                  |
|  [5][3] [8][1] [9][2] [7][4]<- Level 2           |
|                                                  |
|  [5][3] [8][1] [9][2] [7][4]<- Level 3 (leaves)  |
|                                                  |
|  (merge back up...)                              |
|                                                  |
|  Complexity: O(n log n)       bottom-right       |
+--------------------------------------------------+

Area Descriptions

• Top strip: Title text
• Center: Tree of array segments, each level rendered as colored boxes
• Bottom right: MathTex complexity label

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Assets & Dependencies

• Fonts: LaTeX / sans-serif
• Manim version: ManimCE 0.19.1

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Notes

• Color-code elements by original position to track movement across levels
• Use connecting lines between parent and child array segments to show tree structure
• Merge phase shows two pointers scanning across subarrays and combining