What's the fastest way to find out whether an element X exists in a sorted array?
Of course, we all know it is binary search.
However do we really understand the essence of binary search, the wide ranging applications of such a simple algorithm?
Binary search is best visualized as searching for a value X at which F(X) = Y where "F" is some function.
This notion of binary search can help efficiently evaluate:
->Local minima and Local maxima of a function.
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for physics people, did you know you can find out the highest point for a projectile using binary search?
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for math people, finding nth root of a number was never this easy.
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for machine learning enthusiasts, cost minimization techniques like gradient descent and binary search play a crucial role.
Here is a short playlist which outlines the essence of binary search in detail with lots of real-life examples and 6 interesting problems that can be solved with binary search.
link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb3g_Z8nEv1jH8cmcMrx_6MuM_KC_LIan
Do share some fun real-life applications of binary search in comments!