CTCI Big O

Base of logs and exponents

The base of a log doesn't matter for big O since logs of different bases are only different by a constant factor. However, this does not apply to exponents. The base of an exponent does matter. Compare 2^n and 8^n If you expand 8^n you get (2^3)^n which equals 2^3n, which equals 2^2n * 2^n. So, 8^n and 2^n are different by a factor of 2^2n, which is not a constant factor.