a sorted list of numbers contains 128 elements. which of the following is closest to the maximum number of list elements that can be examined when performing a binary search for a value in the list?
Determining the Maximum Number of List Elements in Binary Search
Answer:
In binary search, we repeatedly divide the search interval in half. This means that at each step of the search, the number of elements under consideration is reduced by half. For a sorted list of 128 elements, the maximum number of list elements that can be examined is determined by finding the closest power of 2 that is less than or equal to 128.
Since (2^7 = 128), the maximum number of list elements that can be examined when performing a binary search for a value in the list of 128 elements is 7. Therefore, the closest number to the maximum that is a power of 2 is 7, indicating that you can examine up to 7 elements in the worst-case scenario when performing a binary search on a sorted list of 128 elements.