UMBC CMSC 201 Spring '02 CSEE | 201 | 201 S'02 | lectures | news | help

log to the base 2

How many times can you divide N things in half?


   N/2/2/2/2/2/2/.../2 = a
    __________________
         k times


  N*2**(-k) = 1

  N = 2**k

  k = log2(N)

N log2(N)
1 1
10 3
100 7
1000 10
1000000 20
1000000000 30


CSEE | 201 | 201 S'02 | lectures | news | help