In article <RYydnTSksuDDjYHanZ2dnUVZ8sOonZ2d@bt.com> rjh@see.sig.invalid writes:
> Dik T. Winter said:
>
> > In article <Wr2dnQuAkstHkIranZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@bt.com> rjh@see.sig.invalid
> > writes: ...
> > > It may the OP to recognise that the question, as asked (i.e. in
> > > the absence of big-O notation, which IMHO would in any case make the
> > > question meaningless), is looking for the integer value of n that is
> > > just higher than the real value that is the solution to the following
> > > equation:
> > >
> > > 2 to the power n = 100 * n * n
> > >
> > > This is a simple mathematical exercise.
> >
> > Finding the real value is not exactly a simple mathematical exercise.
>
> It isn't? Using a simple iterative technique, I found the answer in nothing
> flat (actually about 3 milliseconds), getting agreement in 2^n and 100n^2
> to ten decimal places. Given that we only *need* it to one decimal place,
> I'd have thought that was an adequate solution.
>
> I suspect we are using different definitions of "mathematical". :-)

No. The difference is between finding a value and finding an approximation
to a value.
--
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924131
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/