To determine which algorithm has the smallest time complexity, let's look at the time complexities of the algorithms mentioned:
- Linear Search: \(O(n)\)
- Insertion Sort: \(O(n^2)\) in the average and worst cases, \(O(n)\) in the best case.
- Merge Sort: \(O(n \log n)\) in all cases (best, average, worst).
- Binary Search: \(O(\log n)\) (but requires the list to be sorted).
Among these algorithms, binary search has the smallest time complexity with \(O(\log n)\) when it comes to searching in a sorted array.
So, the correct answer is binary search.