Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/3/e/i/solution

The printed fractional arguments require a size convention. To make the recurrence relation precise on positive integers, take a bounded base case and use , for . This integer rounding in a divide-and-conquer recurrence gives . The unrounded calculation is the special split fraction .
Prove by strong induction. Put , choose , and choose . The base case follows. The entropy potential for a divide-and-conquer recurrence gives
The last step uses . This closes the inductive hypothesis and proves in Big O notation.

New to topics? Read the docs here!