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In mathematical analysis, asymptotic analysis, also known as asymptotics, is a method of describing limiting behavior.
As an illustration, suppose that we are interested in the properties of a function f as n becomes very large. If f = n + 3n, then as n becomes very large, the term 3n becomes insignificant compared to n. The function f is said to be "asymptotically equivalent to n, as n → ∞". This is often written symbolically as f ~ n, which is read as "f is asymptotic to n".
An example of an important asymptotic result is the prime number theorem. Let π denote the prime-counting function , i.e. π is the number of prime numbers that are less than or equal to x. Then the theorem states that
Asymptotic analysis is commonly used in computer science as part of the analysis of algorithms and is often expressed there in terms of big O notation.