Böcker av William J. Cook

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.Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Most of what passes for strategic planning is not strategic at all. 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.

This work traces the historical and philosophical development of the modern corporation through Hellensitic, Judaeo-Christian theologies, with particular emphasis on the social, political and economic impact of rationalistic science.

A complete, highly accessible introduction to one of today's most exciting areas of applied mathematics One of the youngest, most vital areas of applied mathematics, combinatorial optimization integrates techniques from combinatorics, linear programming, and the theory of algorithms.