Formal design of algorithms makes it possible to arrive at efficient solutions to problems. Analysis makes it possible to compare two or more solution approaches to the same problem. We will look at the running example of sorting in this class. See the pseudo-code and the example given in the text. In order to analyze the algorithm, we need to figure out the running time of the algorithm.
Asymptotic analysis shows how the run time grows as a function of the input size.
We will look at worst case run time. We assume that operations take a constant time on a given machine. Read Chapter 1 and Section 2.1.