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by josalhor 110 days ago
> computer science students should be familiar with the standard f(x)=O(g(x)) notation

I have always thought that expressing it like that instead of f(x) ∈ O(g(x)) is very confusing. I understand the desire to apply arithmetic notation of summation to represent the factors, but "concluding" this notation with equality, when it's not an equality... Is grounds for confusion.

2 comments

you're confused because it isn't a set

it's a notation for "some element of that set"

Given this possible confusion, is it still valid to say the following two expressions are equivalent as the article does?

f(x) = g(x) + O(1)

f(x) - g(x) = O(1)

f(x) - g(x) ∈ O(1)