Working through a textbook on algorithms (CLRS intro to algorithms) and just wanted to see if someone could help me understand one of the exercises at the end of a chapter.
Problem: Is $n^{2 + 1} = O(n^2)$?
The book uses = loosely to convey the "set of" notation, so it's more like "is $n^{2 + 1}$ contained within $O(n^2)$"? The solutions set says it holds true, but my thought was that the $n+1$ term would mean that it should contain $n^2$ instead. Do we drop the constant even in exponents?