Big-Oh Notations, Elections, and Hyperreal Numbers: A Socratic Dialogue

Proceedings of the ACMS 23 (2023)
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Abstract

We provide an intuitive motivation for the hyperreal numbers via electoral axioms. We do so in the form of a Socratic dialogue, in which Protagoras suggests replacing big-oh complexity classes by real numbers, and Socrates asks some troubling questions about what would happen if one tried to do that. The dialogue is followed by an appendix containing additional commentary and a more formal proof.

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Samuel Allen Alexander
Ohio State University (PhD)

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