Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2009 January 28

= January 28 =

Notation used in Wikipedia article "Prime Gap"
Prime Gap Article - Paragraph entitled "Conjectures about gaps between primes". (((Prime gap)))

The notation used in the first and second formulae is unfamiliar to me. In particular, I could find no explanation of the meaning of the the Capital O function. I have tried to search Wikipedia and google the internet without resolution. Can you explan the notation or direct me to a reference for this usage?208.92.185.250 (talk) 04:33, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Big O notation. Basically it's just a convenient way of stating that two functions behave similarly when a certain limit (in these cases pn→infinity) is taken. And if you happen to think it looks like abuse of the equals sign, then you're right. -- Jao (talk) 08:33, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

208.92.185.250 (talk) 16:54, 28 January 2009 (UTC) Thanks Jao - I was searching for Capital O instead of Big O (It sure is easy to run afoul of mathematical notation).208.92.185.250 (talk) 16:39, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth, big O notation is linked from O (disambiguation). Algebraist 17:07, 28 January 2009 (UTC)