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Could someone please give me a NON MATHEMATICAL (put the answer in words rather than formulas) of what exactly the difference between Big O, Big Omega, and Big Theta are? I have looked at many resources but its still very confusing. I know Big O is the upper bound, Omega is the lower bound, and Theta is within the upper and lower bounds. But what exactly does that mean?

noobcoder
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    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/487258/plain-english-explanation-of-big-o – carloabelli Jul 30 '14 at 02:21
  • if the last part of your question is what does theta mean, it means that both the worse and best case are determined by the same complexity – Keith Nicholas Jul 30 '14 at 02:45
  • Here’s a simple visualization: http://acl.cs.qc.edu/~lhuang/teaching/cs570/big_theta.jpg – Gumbo Jul 30 '14 at 02:45
  • @Gumbo on those graphs, is n0 a random point on the x-axis or does its placement have a meaning? – noobcoder Jul 30 '14 at 02:49
  • n0 is the point where for any n > n0 the function f(n) in question is always smaller (Ο) or always larger (ο) than the bounding function g(n). – Gumbo Jul 30 '14 at 02:59

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