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I'm not very certain about how to deal with asymptotics when they are in the denominator. For $$O\left(\frac{n^2}{\log{\frac{n(n+1)}{2}}}\right)$$, my intuition tells me that it should be treated in a similar way as little o. Would that be correct?

Also, is this in any way comparable with $O(n)$ or $O(n^2)$?

Narek Bojikian
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David
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1 Answers1

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Your expression is

$$ E = \frac{cn^2}{\log \frac{n(n+1)}{2}}$$

where $c$ is some constant. The simple upper bound for $E$ is

$$ E\le c n^2$$

which implies that $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$. For a better bound

$$E = \frac{cn^2}{\log \frac{n(n+1)}{2}} = \frac{cn^2}{ 2 \log n + \log n - \log 2 } $$

Now it is an easy verification that $E$ is $\mathcal{O}(\frac{n^2}{\log n})$. In other words $E$ is $o(n^2)$(weaker statement as compare to the previous one).

  • You can't express $\log(n^2 + n)$ as $\log n^2 + \log n$ that would be equal to $3\log n = \log n^3$. But surely you can ignore the smaller summand. That is, the final result is correct. – Albjenow Jan 09 '20 at 13:09