# The actual time complexity of array access

Suppose we have an array holding n bits of data. What is the time complexity of accessing the i'th bit? I claim that it is in $\Omega(\sqrt[3]{n})$.

Firstly, there is a limit to how much information we can store in a given amount of space. A recent Stanford experiment achieved an information density of around 5 kilobytes per square nanometer. But the empirical value isn't important; let's say we can achieve an information density of ρ.

Storing n bits of information, then, requires an apparatus with a volume of at least n/ρ cubic meters. To minimize the average distance between the CPU and a unit of storage, we could use a spherical storage apparatus and place the CPU at its center. The volume a sphere is $(4/3) \pi r^3$, so with a bit of algebra we get

$r = \sqrt[3]{\frac{3 n}{4 \pi \rho}} \in \Omega(\sqrt[3]{n})$.

Suppose our sphere is centered at the origin. Then the average distance is

$\iiint_S d(x,y,z) \, \mathrm{d}x \, \mathrm{d}y \, \mathrm{d}z$,

where d is the three dimensional Euclidian distance to a point from the origin. This comes out to be (3/4) r. The integration is left as an exercise to the reader.

Information cannot travel faster than c, the speed of light, which is a constant. So access time is linear with distance, which is linear with the radius of our storage apparatus. In particular,

$t \ge c d = \frac{3}{4} c r \in \Omega(r)$.

Since $t \in \Omega(r)$ and $r \in \Omega(\sqrt[3]{n})$, it follows that

$t \in \Omega(\sqrt[3]{n})$.

In other words, the time complexity of array access is lower bounded by the cubic root of the array's size.