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Nondeterministic Constraint Logic
In theoretical computer science, nondeterministic constraint logic is a combinatorial system in which an orientation is given to the edges of a weighted undirected graph, subject to certain constraints. One can change this orientation by steps in which a single edge is reversed, subject to the same constraints. The constraint logic problem and its variants have been proven to be PSPACE-complete to determine whether there exists a sequence of moves that reverses a specified edge and are very useful to show various games and puzzles are PSPACE-hard or PSPACE-complete. This is a form of reversible logic in that each sequence of edge orientation changes can be undone. The hardness of this problem has been used to prove that many games and puzzles have high game complexity. Constraint graphs In the simplest version of nondeterministic constraint logic, each edge of an undirected graph has weight either one or two. (The weights may also be represented graphically by drawing edges of w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theoretical Computer Science
Theoretical computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Association for Computing Machinery, ACM's ACM SIGACT, Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (SIGACT) provides the following description: History While logical inference and mathematical proof had existed previously, in 1931 Kurt Gödel proved with his incompleteness theorem that there are fundamental limitations on what statements could be proved or disproved. Information theory was added to the field with a 1948 mathematical theory of communication by Claude Shannon. In the same decade, Donald Hebb introduced a mathematical model of Hebbian learning, learning in the brain. With mounting biological data supporting this hypothesis with some modification, the fields of n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gadget (computer Science)
In computational complexity theory, a gadget is a subset of a problem instance that simulates the behavior of one of the fundamental units of a different computational problem. Gadgets are typically used to construct reductions from one computational problem to another, as part of proofs of NP-completeness or other types of computational hardness. The component design technique is a method for constructing reductions by using gadgets. traces the use of gadgets to a 1954 paper in graph theory by W. T. Tutte, in which Tutte provided gadgets for reducing the problem of finding a subgraph with given degree constraints to a perfect matching problem. However, the "gadget" terminology has a later origin, and does not appear in Tutte's paper. Example Many NP-completeness proofs are based on many-one reductions from 3-satisfiability, the problem of finding a satisfying assignment to a Boolean formula that is a conjunction (Boolean and) of clauses, each clause being the disjunction (Boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sliding Puzzle
A sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a combination puzzle that challenges a player to slide (frequently flat) pieces along certain routes (usually on a board) to establish a certain end-configuration. The pieces to be moved may consist of simple shapes, or they may be imprinted with colours, patterns, sections of a larger picture (like a jigsaw puzzle), numbers, or letters. Sliding puzzles are essentially two-dimensional in nature, even if the sliding is facilitated by mechanically interlinked pieces (like partially encaged marbles) or three-dimensional tokens. In manufactured wood and plastic products, the linking and encaging is often achieved in combination, through mortise-and-tenon key channels along the edges of the pieces. In at least one vintage case of the popular Chinese cognate game Huarong Road, a wire screen prevents lifting of the pieces, which remain loose. As the illustration shows, some sliding puzzles are mechanical puzzles. Howev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3-CNF
In Boolean logic, a formula is in conjunctive normal form (CNF) or clausal normal form if it is a conjunction of one or more clauses, where a clause is a disjunction of literals; otherwise put, it is a product of sums or an AND of ORs. As a canonical normal form, it is useful in automated theorem proving and circuit theory. All conjunctions of literals and all disjunctions of literals are in CNF, as they can be seen as conjunctions of one-literal clauses and conjunctions of a single clause, respectively. As in the disjunctive normal form (DNF), the only propositional connectives a formula in CNF can contain are and, or, and not. The not operator can only be used as part of a literal, which means that it can only precede a propositional variable or a predicate symbol. In automated theorem proving, the notion "''clausal normal form''" is often used in a narrower sense, meaning a particular representation of a CNF formula as a set of sets of literals. Examples and non-examples Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dominating Set
In graph theory, a dominating set for a graph is a subset of its vertices, such that any vertex of is either in , or has a neighbor in . The domination number is the number of vertices in a smallest dominating set for . The dominating set problem concerns testing whether for a given graph and input ; it is a classical NP-complete decision problem in computational complexity theory. Therefore it is believed that there may be no efficient algorithm that can compute for all graphs . However, there are efficient approximation algorithms, as well as efficient exact algorithms for certain graph classes. Dominating sets are of practical interest in several areas. In wireless networking, dominating sets are used to find efficient routes within ad-hoc mobile networks. They have also been used in document summarization, and in designing secure systems for electrical grids. Formal definition Given an undirected graph , a subset of vertices D\subseteq V is called a dominating se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vertex Cover
In graph theory, a vertex cover (sometimes node cover) of a graph is a set of vertices that includes at least one endpoint of every edge of the graph. In computer science, the problem of finding a minimum vertex cover is a classical optimization problem. It is NP-hard, so it cannot be solved by a polynomial-time algorithm if P ≠ NP. Moreover, it is hard to approximate – it cannot be approximated up to a factor smaller than 2 if the unique games conjecture is true. On the other hand, it has several simple 2-factor approximations. It is a typical example of an NP-hard optimization problem that has an approximation algorithm. Its decision version, the vertex cover problem, was one of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems and is therefore a classical NP-complete problem in computational complexity theory. Furthermore, the vertex cover problem is fixed-parameter tractable and a central problem in parameterized complexity theory. The minimum vertex cover problem can be formulated as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Set (graph Theory)
In graph theory, an independent set, stable set, coclique or anticlique is a set of vertices in a graph, no two of which are adjacent. That is, it is a set S of vertices such that for every two vertices in S, there is no edge connecting the two. Equivalently, each edge in the graph has at most one endpoint in S. A set is independent if and only if it is a clique in the graph's complement. The size of an independent set is the number of vertices it contains. Independent sets have also been called "internally stable sets", of which "stable set" is a shortening. A maximal independent set is an independent set that is not a proper subset of any other independent set. A maximum independent set is an independent set of largest possible size for a given graph G. This size is called the independence number of ''G'' and is usually denoted by \alpha(G). The optimization problem of finding such a set is called the maximum independent set problem. It is a strongly NP-hard problem. As such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reconfiguration
In discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science, reconfiguration problems are computational problems involving reachability or connectivity of state spaces. Types of problems Here, a state space is a discrete set of configurations of a system or solutions of a combinatorial problem, called states, together with a set of allowed moves linking one state to another. Reconfiguration problems may ask: *For a given class of problems, is the state space always connected? That is, can one transform every pair of states into each other with a sequence of moves? If not, what is the computational complexity of determining whether the state space for a particular problem is connected? *What is the diameter of the state space, the smallest number such that every two states can be transformed into each other with at most moves? *Given two states, what is the complexity of determining whether they can be transformed into each other, or of finding the shortest sequence of moves for tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sokoban
is a puzzle video game in which the player pushes boxes around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. The game was designed in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and first published in December 1982. Gameplay The game is played on a board of squares, where each square is a floor or a wall. Some floor squares contain boxes, and some floor squares are marked as storage locations. The player is confined to the board and may move horizontally or vertically onto empty squares (never through walls or boxes). The player can move a box by walking up to it and push it to the square beyond. Boxes cannot be pulled, and they cannot be pushed to squares with walls or other boxes. The number of boxes equals the number of storage locations. The puzzle is solved when all boxes are placed at storage locations. Selected official releases Development ''Sokoban'' was created in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi. The first commercial game was published in December 1982 by Thinking Rabbit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rush Hour (board Game)
''Rush Hour'' is a sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara in the 1970s. It was first sold in the United States in 1996. It is now being manufactured by ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts). ThinkFun now sells ''Rush Hour'' spin-offs ''Rush Hour Jr.'', ''Safari Rush Hour'', ''Railroad Rush Hour'', ''Rush Hour Brain Fitness'' and ''Rush Hour Shift'', with puzzles by Scott Kim. Game The board is a 6×6 grid with grooves in the tiles to allow cars to slide, card tray to hold the cards, current active card holder and an exit hole. The game comes with 16 vehicles (12 cars, 4 trucks), each colored differently, and 40 puzzle cards. Cars and trucks are both one square wide, but cars are two squares long and trucks are three squares long. Vehicles can only be moved along a straight line on the grid; rotation is forbidden. Puzzle cards, each with a level number that indicates the difficulty of the challenge, show the starting positions of cars and trucks. Not all cars and trucks are us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sliding Block Puzzle
A sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a combination puzzle that challenges a player to slide (frequently flat) pieces along certain routes (usually on a board) to establish a certain end-configuration. The pieces to be moved may consist of simple shapes, or they may be imprinted with colours, patterns, sections of a larger picture (like a jigsaw puzzle), numbers, or letters. Sliding puzzles are essentially two-dimensional in nature, even if the sliding is facilitated by mechanically interlinked pieces (like partially encaged marbles) or three-dimensional tokens. In manufactured wood and plastic products, the linking and encaging is often achieved in combination, through mortise-and-tenon key channels along the edges of the pieces. In at least one vintage case of the popular Chinese cognate game Huarong Road, a wire screen prevents lifting of the pieces, which remain loose. As the illustration shows, some sliding puzzles are mechanical puzzles. Howev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Demaine
Erik D. Demaine (born February 28, 1981) is a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former child prodigy. Early life and education Demaine was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to artist sculptor Martin L. Demaine and Judy Anderson. From the age of 7, he was identified as a child prodigy and spent time traveling across North America with his father. He was home-schooled during that time span until entering university at the age of 12. Demaine completed his bachelor's degree at 14 years of age at Dalhousie University in Canada, and completed his PhD at the University of Waterloo by the time he was 20 years old. Demaine's PhD dissertation, a work in the field of computational origami, was completed at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of Anna Lubiw and Ian Munro. This work was awarded the Canadian Governor General's Gold Medal from the University of Waterloo and the NSERC Doctoral Prize (2003) for the best PhD thesis an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
