title: minimum number of comparisons needed
body: <p>what is the minimum number of comparisons needed to find the largest element from 4 distinct elements? I know for 5 distinct numbers it is 6, floor(5/2) * 3; this is from clrs book. but I know there is no one general formula for finding this, or is there? </p>
  
  <p><strong>edit clarification</strong></p>
  
  <p>these 4 elements could be in any different order(for all permutations of these 4 elements) im not interested in a counting technique to keep track of the largest element as you traverse the elements, but comparisons like > or &lt;. </p>