4 Comments:Bob Merkin said...
Is it possible that this mathematical problem is beyond the skills of all readers of Vleeptron?
That's scary.
It's going to be early April before Anna, Benjamin, Chloe, David, Eloise, Freddy and Gemma get their presents.
Wed Dec 27, 10:04:59 AM 2006
RamanuJohn said...
nCEFDABGn
4887.891293962863 kilometers
Wed Dec 27, 10:47:30 AM 2006
Bob Merkin said...
wow.
Vleeptron confesses that, failing any answers from anybody on Planet Earth, I went into Undernet #math and bothered and harrassed that bunch and tried to shame somebody into trying to answer it. [I threatened to sing ABBA's Greatest Hits thru their speakers until they solved the problem.]
Lo.
And it's The Right Answer!
Santa left the North Pole and flew to Chloe's house, then to Eloise's, then to Freddy's, David's, Anna's, Benjamin's and Gemma's, and then back to the North Pole, and the Trip Meter read 4887.89+ km, and there ain't no shorter way to do Christmas Eve 2006.
Of course Santa could do the same path backwards and that would also be the shortest path.
Uhh, Thanks ramanuJohn! you kick ass!
Shoulda said, but I was trying to design the problem so nobody had to mess with more than 2 decimal digits, but if u say the whole thang is 4887.891293962863 , that's fine with moi. You can place each child's toy to less than the width of 1 human hair with that kinda precision.
Vleeptron is deeply grateful and honored that ramanujohn has done this humble problem this honor.
so like rama ... where u from, who r u, nosy crap like that. no goddam robot solved this proble. you r a HUMAN BEING!
Also you have earned 1/2 of a pepperoni pizza to your account. shipping not included, but e-mail me if you're ever anywhere near Northampton or Amherst Massachusetts USA, you will get your well-won pizza! (And I know the best pizzerias in the Five College Area.)
Wed Dec 27, 11:32:10 AM 2006
Bob Merkin said...
rama -- share.
what lingo did you write your proggie in?
(or did you do it in your head, or just use a 4-banger calculator?)
have you taken a combinatorics course?
(do you teach a combinatorics course?)
write a brief bit about what the Travelling Santa Problem means to you. Was this your first TSP? Tell us some Advanced Stuph about the importance of TSP.
Are we not Men? Are we not Women?
6 comments:
Thanks for coming by. Thanks for the link.
hey hey hey Lynn! Thanks for comin' by, this Q was up for a few days and nobody even commented to say
math is stoopid
(I get that sometimes)
I really like your Avatar!
I was working on it. With pencil and paper. (Can't find the calculator and I was being stubborn about it.)
In other news...I have lots of days off this week and next week...want to deliver your pizza here in Boston one day soon? I think I still am owed a pizza for getting the Elephant Building question.
Besides...you have to come see Marsh Chapel before I leave. (Yes, I'm leaving.)
yeah i wanna see Marsh Chapel, sorry you're skeedaddling, i remember from my own undergrad student days how often I needed the services of the university chaplain.
(i didn't even know my uni had one. i am a heathen. sue me.)
good on ya for trying to bang it out on a calculator! Did you realize you would have had to find the lengths of 2520 paths?
one nifty thing about this problem is that it requires you to use the Pythagorean Right-Triangle Theorem about a gazillion times. Truth From My Ancient Kult!
lots of profoundly clever shortcuts guaranteed to find a Very Short Efficient Path have been discovered, but so far THE shortest path for TSP (sometimes the S boringly stands for Salesman) remains one of the most stubborn of all math challenges -- like, when Santa has to visit 50 or more houses. Then the Supercomputer starts to weep and blow a gasket.
i am going to murder ramanuJohn if he doesn't post another comment. doesn't he like pizza?
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