What is the shortest possible route for a travelling salesman seeking to visit each city on a list exactly once and return to his city of origin? It sounds simple enough, yet the travelling 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 excu...
What is the shortest possible route for a travelling salesman seeking to visit each city on a list exactly once and return to his city of origin? It sounds simple enough, yet the travelling 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 travelling 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 travelling 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.
News of the general linear-programming model, and the simplex algorithm for its solution, was delivered by George Dantzig in 1948 at a meeting held at the University of Wisconsin. The event was a defining moment for Dantzig, who has described often its proceedings. Like many good stories, repeated telling may have shifted a few details over the years, but all versions capture the spirit of a nervous rising star facing a large and distinguished group of mathematicians and economists. During the discussion following Dantzig’s lecture, Harold Hotelling, great in both academic stature and physical size, rose from his seat, stated simply, “But we all know the world is nonlinear,” and sat down. Dantzig was lost for a reply to such a sweeping criticism.
Suddenly another hand in the audience was r... (查看原文)
Dr.J
人民邮电出版社2013版
0 有用 schweik 2012-05-19 01:42:06
good introduction
0 有用 will 2013-08-23 17:42:50
不错的TSP和P vs NP科普读物。让我对P=NP充满幻想。
0 有用 ss 2013-04-06 04:16:55
有“Dantzig上课迟到于是把经典难题当成作业搞定”的传说，有“一大堆算法就是不写代码”的课文，有“苦逼推销员的路线被老板改了于是写信吐槽还我路线”的历史，还有“我们搞数学的家伙看书很少而且只看科幻”的潜台词——喂你们明明是搞钉子绳子和计算机的好不。
0 有用 geffer 2013-05-21 15:55:52
装帧很好 配图不错 但学术的人看本书帮助并不大 但作为科普读物 想要完整啃下来有略显晦涩
0 有用 tzungtzu 2017-01-10 11:25:10
科普读物