03025nam a2200385 a 4500 EBC802242 MiAaPQ 20250821115247.0 m o d | cr cn||||||||| 110826s2012 njuab sb 001 0 eng d 2011030626 9780691152707 (hardback) 9781400839599 (electronic bk.) (MiAaPQ)EBC802242 (Au-PeEL)EBL802242 (CaPaEBR)ebr10514781 (CaONFJC)MIL333977 (OCoLC)768731903 MiAaPQ MiAaPQ MiAaPQ QA164 .C69 2012 511/.5 23 Cook, William, 1957- 370817 In pursuit of the traveling salesman [electronic resource] : mathematics at the limits of computation / William J. Cook. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2012. xiii, 228 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps. Includes bibliographical references and index. "What is the shortest possible route for a traveling salesman seeking to visit each city on a list exactly once and return to his city of origin? It sounds simple enough, yet the traveling salesman problem is one of the most intensely studied puzzles in applied mathematics--and it has defied solution to this day. In this book, William Cook takes readers on a mathematical excursion, picking up the salesman's trail in the 1800s when Irish mathematician W. R. Hamilton first defined the problem, and venturing to the furthest limits of today's state-of-the-art attempts to solve it. Cook examines the origins and history of the salesman problem and explores its many important applications, from genome sequencing and designing computer processors to arranging music and hunting for planets. He looks at how computers stack up against the traveling salesman problem on a grand scale, and discusses how humans, unaided by computers, go about trying to solve the puzzle. Cook traces the salesman problem to the realms of neuroscience, psychology, and art, and he also challenges readers to tackle the problem themselves. The traveling salesman problem is--literally--a $1 million question. That's the prize the Clay Mathematics Institute is offering to anyone who can solve the problem or prove that it can't be done. In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman travels to the very threshold of our understanding about the nature of complexity, and challenges you yourself to discover the solution to this captivating mathematical problem"-- Provided by publisher. Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries. Traveling salesman problem. 370818 Computational complexity. 36729 Electronic books. 35142 ProQuest (Firm) 370819 https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kuct-ebooks/detail.action?docID=802242 Click to View 277930 277930