A Word Use That Doesn’t Add Up

Take the humble quadratic (typified by the formula “x to the power 2,” or x²) which, for instance, tracks how the distance traveled by an object in free-fall increases with x, the time. Quadratic increases also “become more and more rapid,” but the exponential wins out — strikingly so — once enough time has elapsed. As another example, the practical running time of computer algorithms that slave away unseen for us (minimizing travel time, distance, cost, etc.) needs to grow far less than exponentially even if they are working on problems with an exponentially increasing number of possible solutions (for example, ever-growing possible combinations of routes and fares).

Source: www.nytimes.com