diff --git a/bench b/bench
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..c346b1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bench
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+SETUP="import sorting;import random;l = list(range(0, ${1-5000}));random.shuffle(l)"
+
+echo -n "insertion sort: "
+python -m timeit -s "$SETUP" 'sorting.insertion_sort(l)'
+
+echo -n "merge sort: "
+python -m timeit -s "$SETUP" 'sorting.merge_sort(l)'