exponent
(Or "characteristic") The part of a floating-point number specifying the power of ten by which the mantissa should be multiplied. In the common notation, e.g. 3.1E8, the exponent is 8.
Last updated: 1995-02-27
exponential
1. A function which raises some given constant (the "base") to the power of its argument. I.e.
f x = b^xIf no base is specified, e, the base of natural logarthims, is assumed.
2. exponential-time algorithm.
Last updated: 1995-04-27
exponential-time
The set or property of problems which can be solved by an exponential-time algorithm but for which no polynomial-time algorithm is known.
Last updated: 1995-04-27
exponential-time algorithm
An algorithm (or Turing Machine) that is guaranteed to terminate within a number of steps which is a exponential function of the size of the problem.
For example, if you have to check every number of n digits to find a solution, the complexity is O(10^n), and if you add an extra digit, you must check ten times as many numbers. Even if such an algorithm is practical for some given value of n, it is likely to become impractical for larger values. This is in contrast to a polynomial-time algorithm which grows more slowly. See also computational complexity, polynomial-time, NP-complete.Last updated: 1995-04-27
Nearby terms:
Exploratory Data Analysis ♦ exponent ♦ exponential ♦ exponential-time
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