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Subject: Re: A final stab at big-O

Author: Paul

Date: 13:17:37 05/09/01

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Dann, maybe I'm dimm, but doesn't the whole discussion arise out of a different
definition of n?

In the TSP, n = the number of cities, right? n is variable, and then later used
to give an O(...) estimate of the algorithm depending on that n.

In chess you can choose different definitions of n:

1. n = the number of possible (legal) positions,
   this means n = constant, there is no variable n in this case, so any
   algorithm is of order O(#positions) = O(1).

2. n = plydepth, this is variable, so you can talk about algorithms (like
   alpha-beta) being exponential in n.

To me this is all there is to it?

Paul



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