A greedy algorithm for egyptian fractions is a way of breaking down a fraction into smaller parts so it can be written using only numbers that are whole. For example, if you have the fraction 5/8, you can use the greedy algorithm to break it down into 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8. To do this, we start by looking at the biggest part of the fraction we can use, which is 1/2. Then, we take the remaining fraction - 3/8 - and look for the biggest number we can use for the second part, which is 1/4. Finally, we take the remaining fraction - 1/8 - and use that for the third part, so our answer is 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8.