This book presents the latest findings on one of the most intensely investigated subjects in computational mathematics--the traveling salesman problem. It sounds simple enough: given a set of cities and the cost of travel between each pair of them, the problem challenges you to find the cheapest route by which to visit all the cities and return home to where you began. Though seemingly modest, this exercise has inspired studies by mathematicians, chemists, and physicists. Teachers use it in the classroom. It has practical applications in genetics, telecommunications, and neuroscience.
 The authors of this book are the same pioneers who for nearly two decades have led the investigation into the traveling salesman problem. They have derived solutions to almost eighty-six thousand cities, yet a general solution to the problem has yet to be discovered. Here they describe the method and computer code they used to solve a broad range of large-scale problems, and along the way they demonstrate the interplay of applied mathematics with increasingly powerful computing platforms. They also give the fascinating history of the problem--how it developed, and why it continues to intrigue us.

The Traveling Salesman Problem: A Computational Study (Princeton Series in Applied Mathematics)

Cook, William J.

Applegate, David L.

Bixby, Robert E.

Chvátal, Vašek

Computers & Technology

Princeton University Press

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 sales

In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

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. He also explores its many important applications, from genome sequencing and designing computer processors to arranging music and hunting for planets.
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.

Book by Fellinger, Robert C., Cook, William J.

Introduction to Engineering Thermodynamics

Science & Math

Fellinger, Robert C.

Physics

West Group

Strategic Planning for America's Schools [Paperback]

Strategic Planning for America's Schools

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Amer Assn School Administrator

Jonas Hall is having the worst day of his life. Over morning coffee he sees television news of a bank robbery gone terribly awry. A cell phone video of the event has gone viral on the Internet and he discovers that the unnamed hostage killed in the aborted robbery had been his best friend fifty years ago when they both attended St. Dunstan's Seminary as adolescents studying for the Catholic priesthood. When Jonas gets to his job as a mental health therapist in a local clinic, he is summarily escorted from the premises and placed on administrative leave when two young female patients of his come forward to claim that he sexually abused them during the course of psychotherapy. To add insult to injury, he returns home that day only to be served divorce papers from his second wife. With his personal and professional life in shambles, Jonas embarks on a quest to find out what happened to his best friend Step in the decades since his friend's expulsion from St. Dunstan's. How did Step wind up at the wrong end of a bank robber's gun? The journey leads from a small Connecticut town to the teeming streets of Brownsville in New York City; from the sprawling Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. to the folk music and coffee houses of Albany in upstate New York; from the chaos of the shootings at Kent State in Ohio to the lush Willamette Valley and the pristine forests and rivers of western Oregon. Part coming-of-age story, part saga of fall and redemption, Songs for the Journey Home looks at the contemporary crisis of faith that many people experience when they try to reconcile the ideals of the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life. Jonas must confront his own bitterness and unbelief, the faith he rejected in the face of all that happened at the seminary, his self-loathing and his counterfeit relationships as a therapist. At times grim and gritty, at other times lyrical in its prose, Songs for the Journey Home spans the fifty years from 1962 to 2012 in an adventure of love and loss, treachery and murder, failure and heroism. It challenges the reader to examine the fundamental question of philosophy and spirituality: If this is what I know, then how shall I live?

Songs for the Journey Home

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Religion and Criminal Justice

Cognella Academic Publishing

The sleepy coastal town of Driftwood, Oregon, is about to be awakened by big-city crime. An ex-convict named Raven is on a rampage. After killing two convenience store clerks, he kidnaps Kaitlynn, adolescent daughter of Chloe Denhurst. When Chloe works frantically to save her daughter's life, she discovers that the man she loves shares a terrible secret with the kidnapper. A twisted web of betrayal, revenge, and murder, leading to a heart-pounding confrontation on the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

Seal of Secrets: A Novel (The Driftwood Mysteries)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

“Decades of experience concentrated into the highest possible SNR.” — Stephen F. Tonkin, Author Binocular Astronomy “Bill Cook is a seasoned optical professional who has perfected ‘everything binocular’ with his no nonsense approach to straightening the curves of understanding concerning them. With an unmatched writing style, his vignette on Collimation vs. Conditional Alignment is spot on!” — Gail Fisher, Repair Manager, Swarovski Optik “I have gone through your book and I am amazed — it should be printed asap! It was not only fun to read, but also highly educational and absolutely worth studying, even for the experienced binocular user.” — Holger Merlitz, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics,
Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, PR China. “This is an important book and one that should be read by engineers, binocular users, collectors, dealers, and manufacturers.”
— Paul R. Yoder, Fellow Member of SPIE and OSA, Co-Author Field Guide to Binoculars and Scopes Written for any serious user, “Binoculars: Fallacy &amp; Fact” provides a fascinating look at the world of binoculars by someone who knows binoculars inside and out. And when I say inside, I mean truly inside as Bill Cook has spent his career adjusting and repairing binoculars. Bill knows his stuff and he is not afraid to clarify the facts and to share his honest opinions with us. The book comes across as a casual conversation making it an easy read but chock-full of information illuminated by personal anecdotes. — John E. Greivenkamp, Professor, College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona “Going through the US Navy Opticalman “A” School with Bill, serving with him aboard USS Grand Canyon, and later working with him at Captain’s Nautical Supplies in Seattle, I can attest that you’ll not find a man more passionate or knowledgeable about optics and binoculars. Any odd-ball questions asked by the novice or self-proclaimed expert are quickly answered in a straight-forward and accurate manner. This book goes well beyond the ever-regurgitated numbers and gets into the facts of how it all works.” — Cory A. Suddarth, President, Suddarth Optical Repair “When it comes to optics, think Bill Cook. I have known him for several decades and his credentials are as strong as they come. When a question arises that I am unsure of, he is one of the first to be called on among the dozen or so experts I trust. Bill is not out to protect brands and factories when they continually mislead consumers about their products. Instead, he tells it like it is — straight and honest — even when manufacturers get upset when they hear the truth. This book will not only be helpful for those thinking about purchasing a binocular, but also those who want to learn more about the instrument they have now.” — Alan Hale has served as C.E.O. and President of Celestron and is currently Chairman Emeritus of the company. Alan is the author of “Sport Optics – Binoculars, Spotting Scopes, and Riflescopes”

BINOCULARS: Fallacy & Fact: The Instruments, The Industry and You

Astronomy & Space Science

Most of what passes for strategic planning is not strategic at all. It is long-range planning or comprehensive planning, or in some cases just program or project planning. The result is a relinquishment of control to external conditions and circumstances, the perpetuation of obsolete systems, and organizational fragmentation and internal conflict. The opportunity to create new possibilities and realities―the ultimate object of strategy―is lost. Cook maintains that even to attempt strategy there must first be a strategic system, a system that deals with strategic issues, decision-making, and strategic action, which is preceded by strategic thinking. Cook combines these three aspects of strategy into a coherent, powerful concept that reinvigorates strategy with its original forceful meaning: strategos―to lead an army. In this way strategy becomes the means by which communities continuously create artifactual systems to serve extraordinary purposes. His book contains sound, pragmatic theory, original insights into strategic issues, and detailed hands-on guidance on all phases of strategic thinking, planning, and action.
Cook explains that stragetics can be expressed as thinking, planning, and action. Strategic thinking will always embrace five arenas: the definition of strategy, the meaning of leaders and leading, the distinction between condition and cause, the nature of systems, and the characteristics of organizations. Strategic planning, as a currently popular management practice, is not what it was originally. The definition has changed. The only definition that captures the original intent is: the means by which a community of people create artifactual systems to serve extraordinary purposes. Dr. Cook points out that strategic action is seldom included in any contemporary intepretation or application of strategy, yet action is both the realization of strategy and the creation of new possibilities beyond strategy. In that sense, strategic action is the end and the beinning of strategics. Thus, Cook takes the traditional idea of strategic planning, infuses it with strategic thinking, and carries it to strategic action. Instead of merely improving what already exists, organizations can create new systems that are capable of what he calls constant emergence―always vital, always creative.

Strategics: The Art and Science of Holistic Strategy

Business & Money

Management & Leadership

Praeger

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Books by Cook, William J.