Lower bounds

Lower bounds refer to the minimum possible amount of resources—such as time, effort, or computational steps—needed to solve a problem or perform a task. They establish a baseline that no algorithm or method can surpass, meaning it's impossible to do better than this limit. Think of it as the fundamental floor; no matter how optimized your approach is, you can't reduce the necessary resources below that point. Lower bounds help us understand the inherent difficulty of problems and guide us in evaluating the efficiency of solutions.