Optimal search for rationals

  • Authors:
  • Stephen Kwek;Kurt Mehlhorn

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Computer Science, San Antonio, TX;Max-Planck-Institute fur Informatics, Im Stadtwald, Geb. 44, Saarbrücken 66123, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Information Processing Letters
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

We present a Θ(log2 M)-time algorithm that determines an unknown rational number x in QM = {p/q: p, q ∈ {1, ..., M}} by asking at most 2log2 M + O(1) queries of the form "Is x ≤ y?".