Skip to main content

Week 9: The Big (not actually that scary) O: Part 2

Greetings readers!

I'm sure you're all super interested in learning about Big O, so without further ado, I shall share more of my (albeit limited) knowledge with you.

Let me first present to you what it means to be bounded above by big O.

Or more precisely:

If the function f(n) which is a positive increasing function, is in the set of functions bounded above by the function listed in O, then beyond the breakpoint B, f(n) will be no bigger (or will be bounded above) than n^2 that is multiplied by some c that makes this statement true. 

If we were to look at a graph, it would look something like this:

In terms of coding and find the worst case in sorting methods, big O will help you find the maximum possible number of steps a function may take for any given input.

Now that you know almost just as much about big O as I do! Isn't that something! (that something would be not much... but hey baby steps, baby steps)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!!
Lana :)


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Week 12: Halting Problem Visualized

Hello readers! I'm sure you're all hard at work trying to finish assignment 3. I just wanted to take a few minutes to share with you a video I found on the halting problem. It may be a tad overdramatic (especially with the music) and corny, but it does explain the problem quite well. Here's part 1 (which can be skipped if you want): And part 2, which is where the real explanation of the halting function starts (skip to 2:33 if you don't like corny dialogue): Hopefully this helps with your endeavors (or at least is a bit entertaining)! Good luck with the assignment! Lana :)

Week 5: Tracing Recursion

Hello readers! How have you guys been recently? I have been bombarded with a myriad of tests, labs, and assignments, as usual, but I'll holding up alright! Today's blurb is on tracing recursion! As you all know, a recursive function is basically any function that is called within itself. You'll need it any time a bigger problem can be solved by solving smaller versions of a same type of problem until you get your answer to the big one. Kind of. At least that's how I see it. Anyhow, tracing recursion is not as bad as it sounds, it takes some bit of practice, of course, but all in all it will eventually click. Tracing recursion was on the test this week went successfully I should think. The quasi-solution I came out with with involved the function we needed to trace giving the maximum length of any lists that were fed into it, including the length of the overall list. If I am correct, then my tracing would have been successful. We shall see in due time! Bu...

Week 10: How to solve a problem

Hello my good friends! This week is the coveted fall reading break, and I hope you all are doing something useful with your time, like me, who is currently writing my SLOG. Now that the course is nearing its end, I would like to take it back to the beginning and try to solve one of those logic puzzles, using the Polya method we learned in class. I am, afterall, an amateur logician now, am I not? So here is the puzzle I have found from the problem solving wiki page. So without further ado, I present to you: Walk Tilings Suppose you have tiles that are 1x2 rectangles, and you have to tile a walk that is 2x3 units long. You've got three choices: 3 vertical tiles, 1 vertical tile followed by two horizontal tiles, or two horizontal tiles followed by one vertical tiles. How many choices do you have in tiling a 2x4 walk? How about a 2xn walk, where n is some natural number? Do you have a procedure that works for any n? Understanding the Problem Ultimately ...