Running time comparison of Sorting Algorithms

Introduction

One of the fundamental problems of computer science is ordering a list of items. There's a plethora of solutions to this problem, known as sorting algorithms. Some sorting algorithms are simple and intuitive, such as the Bubble sort. Others, such as the Quick sort can be extremely complicated, but produce lightening-fast results.The common sorting algorithms can be divided into two classes by the complexity of their algorithms. The two classes of sorting algorithms are O(n2), which includes the Bubble, Insertion and Selection sorts; and O(n log n) which includes the Heap, Merge and Quick sorts.
In addition to algorithmic complexity, the speed of the various sorts can be compared with empirical data. Since the speed of a sort can vary greatly depending on what data set it sorts, accurate empirical results require several runs of the sort be made and the results averaged together. The empirical data used in this project is the average of several runs against random data...