Base Case

Base case can refer to:

  • A case of a recursive definition that is not defined in terms of itself
  • The basis in mathematical induction, showing that a statement holds when n is equal to the lowest value that n is given in the question (usually, n = 0 or n = 1)

Famous quotes containing the words base and/or case:

    You see how this House of Commons has begun to verify all the ill prophecies that were made of it—low, vulgar, meddling with everything, assuming universal competency, and flattering every base passion—and sneering at everything noble refined and truly national. The direct tyranny will come on by and by, after it shall have gratified the multitude with the spoil and ruin of the old institutions of the land.
    Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

    A more problematic example is the parallel between the increasingly abstract and insubstantial picture of the physical universe which modern physics has given us and the popularity of abstract and non-representational forms of art and poetry. In each case the representation of reality is increasingly removed from the picture which is immediately presented to us by our senses.
    Harvey Brooks (b. 1915)