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Orders of Magnitude: The 0, o, ~ Notation

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Abstract

In many practical applications of Mathematics it is necessary to consider the behavior of some function f(x) of x as x tends to some limit (finite or infinite). However, many times the function f(x) is extremely complicated in nature, or incompletely known, and it is preferable (in fact, perhaps only possible) to describe the asymptotic behavior of f(x) relative to (or compared with) some other function g(x) of x as x tends to the same limit. In practice, the comparison function g is often chosen as a “simpler” function, such as a power or exponential function.

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References to Additional and Related Material: Section 6

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© 1979 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Meyer, R.M. (1979). Orders of Magnitude: The 0, o, ~ Notation. In: Essential Mathematics for Applied Fields. Universitext. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8072-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8072-6_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-90450-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-8072-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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