AvlNode<E> newTop = pred();
        // newTop is the maximum node in my left subtree
        newTop.left = left.removeMax(newTop);
        newTop.right = right;
        newTop.distinctElements = distinctElements - 1;
        newTop.totalCount = totalCount - oldElemCount;
        return newTop.rebalance();
      } else {
        AvlNode<E> newTop = succ();

        AvlNode<E> newTop = pred();
        // newTop is the maximum node in my left subtree
        newTop.left = left.removeMax(newTop);
        newTop.right = right;
        newTop.distinctElements = distinctElements - 1;
        newTop.totalCount = totalCount - oldElemCount;
        return newTop.rebalance();
      } else {
        AvlNode<E> newTop = succ();

     *
     * We start out with a double-precision approximation, which may be higher or lower than the
     * true value. Therefore, we perform at least one Newton iteration to get a guess that's
     * definitely >= floor(sqrt(x)), and then continue the iteration until we reach a fixed point.
     */
    BigInteger sqrt0;
    int log2 = log2(x, FLOOR);