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No-three-in-line Problem
The no-three-in-line problem in discrete geometry asks how many points can be placed in the n\times n grid so that no three points lie on the same line. The problem concerns lines of all slopes, not only those aligned with the grid. It was introduced by Henry Dudeney in 1900. Brass, Moser, and Pach call it "one of the oldest and most extensively studied geometric questions concerning lattice points". At most 2n points can be placed, because 2n+1 points in a grid would include a row of three or more points, by the pigeonhole principle. Although the problem can be solved with 2n points for every n up it is conjectured that fewer than 2n points can be placed in grids of large size. Known methods can place linearly many points in grids of arbitrary size, but the best of these methods place slightly fewer than 3n/2 points, Several related problems of finding points with no three in line, among other sets of points than grids, have also been studied. Although originating in recre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edge (graph Theory)
This is a glossary of graph theory. Graph theory is the study of graphs, systems of nodes or vertices connected in pairs by lines or edges. Symbols A B C D E F G H I K L M N O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parameterized Complexity
In computer science, parameterized complexity is a branch of computational complexity theory that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty with respect to ''multiple'' parameters of the input or output. The complexity of a problem is then measured as a function of those parameters. This allows the classification of NP-hard problems on a finer scale than in the classical setting, where the complexity of a problem is only measured as a function of the number of bits in the input. The first systematic work on parameterized complexity was done by . Under the assumption that P ≠ NP, there exist many natural problems that require superpolynomial running time when complexity is measured in terms of the input size only, but that are computable in a time that is polynomial in the input size and exponential or worse in a parameter . Hence, if is fixed at a small value and the growth of the function over is relatively small then such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greedy Algorithm
A greedy algorithm is any algorithm that follows the problem-solving heuristic of making the locally optimal choice at each stage. In many problems, a greedy strategy does not produce an optimal solution, but a greedy heuristic can yield locally optimal solutions that approximate a globally optimal solution in a reasonable amount of time. For example, a greedy strategy for the travelling salesman problem (which is of high computational complexity) is the following heuristic: "At each step of the journey, visit the nearest unvisited city." This heuristic does not intend to find the best solution, but it terminates in a reasonable number of steps; finding an optimal solution to such a complex problem typically requires unreasonably many steps. In mathematical optimization, greedy algorithms optimally solve combinatorial problems having the properties of matroids and give constant-factor approximations to optimization problems with the submodular structure. Specifics Greedy algori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Approximation Ratio
An approximation is anything that is intentionally similar but not exactly equal to something else. Etymology and usage The word ''approximation'' is derived from Latin ''approximatus'', from ''proximus'' meaning ''very near'' and the prefix ''ad-'' (''ad-'' before ''p'' becomes ap- by assimilation) meaning ''to''. Words like ''approximate'', ''approximately'' and ''approximation'' are used especially in technical or scientific contexts. In everyday English, words such as ''roughly'' or ''around'' are used with a similar meaning. It is often found abbreviated as ''approx.'' The term can be applied to various properties (e.g., value, quantity, image, description) that are nearly, but not exactly correct; similar, but not exactly the same (e.g., the approximate time was 10 o'clock). Although approximation is most often applied to numbers, it is also frequently applied to such things as mathematical functions, shapes, and physical laws. In science, approximation can refer to u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
APX-hard
In computational complexity theory, the class APX (an abbreviation of "approximable") is the set of NP optimization problems that allow polynomial-time approximation algorithms with approximation ratio bounded by a constant (or constant-factor approximation algorithms for short). In simple terms, problems in this class have efficient algorithms that can find an answer within some fixed multiplicative factor of the optimal answer. An approximation algorithm is called an f(n)-approximation algorithm for input size n if it can be proven that the solution that the algorithm finds is at most a multiplicative factor of f(n) times worse than the optimal solution. Here, f(n) is called the ''approximation ratio''. Problems in APX are those with algorithms for which the approximation ratio f(n) is a constant c. The approximation ratio is conventionally stated greater than 1. In the case of minimization problems, f(n) is the found solution's score divided by the optimum solution's score, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Approximation Algorithm
In computer science and operations research, approximation algorithms are efficient algorithms that find approximate solutions to optimization problems (in particular NP-hard problems) with provable guarantees on the distance of the returned solution to the optimal one. Approximation algorithms naturally arise in the field of theoretical computer science as a consequence of the widely believed P ≠ NP conjecture. Under this conjecture, a wide class of optimization problems cannot be solved exactly in polynomial time. The field of approximation algorithms, therefore, tries to understand how closely it is possible to approximate optimal solutions to such problems in polynomial time. In an overwhelming majority of the cases, the guarantee of such algorithms is a multiplicative one expressed as an approximation ratio or approximation factor i.e., the optimal solution is always guaranteed to be within a (predetermined) multiplicative factor of the returned solution. However, there ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NP-hard
In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard problem is the subset sum problem. A more precise specification is: a problem ''H'' is NP-hard when every problem ''L'' in NP can be reduced in polynomial time to ''H''; that is, assuming a solution for ''H'' takes 1 unit time, ''H''s solution can be used to solve ''L'' in polynomial time. As a consequence, finding a polynomial time algorithm to solve any NP-hard problem would give polynomial time algorithms for all the problems in NP. As it is suspected that P≠NP, it is unlikely that such an algorithm exists. It is suspected that there are no polynomial-time algorithms for NP-hard problems, but that has not been proven. Moreover, the class P, in which all problems can be solved in polynomial time, is contained in the NP class. De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Position
In algebraic geometry and computational geometry, general position is a notion of genericity for a set of points, or other geometric objects. It means the ''general case'' situation, as opposed to some more special or coincidental cases that are possible, which is referred to as special position. Its precise meaning differs in different settings. For example, generically, two lines in the plane intersect in a single point (they are not parallel or coincident). One also says "two generic lines intersect in a point", which is formalized by the notion of a generic point. Similarly, three generic points in the plane are not collinear; if three points are collinear (even stronger, if two coincide), this is a degenerate case. This notion is important in mathematics and its applications, because degenerate cases may require an exceptional treatment; for example, when stating general theorems or giving precise statements thereof, and when writing computer programs (see '' generic compl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computational Geometry
Computational geometry is a branch of computer science devoted to the study of algorithms which can be stated in terms of geometry. Some purely geometrical problems arise out of the study of computational geometric algorithms, and such problems are also considered to be part of computational geometry. While modern computational geometry is a recent development, it is one of the oldest fields of computing with a history stretching back to antiquity. Computational complexity is central to computational geometry, with great practical significance if algorithms are used on very large datasets containing tens or hundreds of millions of points. For such sets, the difference between O(''n''2) and O(''n'' log ''n'') may be the difference between days and seconds of computation. The main impetus for the development of computational geometry as a discipline was progress in computer graphics and computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/ CAM), but many problems in computational geometry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pick's Theorem
In geometry, Pick's theorem provides a formula for the area of a simple polygon with integer vertex coordinates, in terms of the number of integer points within it and on its boundary. The result was first described by Georg Alexander Pick in 1899. It was popularized in English by Hugo Steinhaus in the 1950 edition of his book ''Mathematical Snapshots''. It has multiple proofs, and can be generalized to formulas for certain kinds of non-simple polygons. Formula Suppose that a polygon has integer coordinates for all of its vertices. Let i be the number of integer points interior to the polygon, and let b be the number of integer points on its boundary (including both vertices and points along the sides). Then the area A of this polygon is: A = i + \frac - 1. The example shown has i=7 interior points and b=8 boundary points, so its area is A=7+\tfrac-1=10 square units. Proofs Via Euler's formula One proof of this theorem involves subdividing the polygon into triangles with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graph Coloring
In graph theory, graph coloring is a special case of graph labeling; it is an assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph subject to certain constraints. In its simplest form, it is a way of coloring the vertices of a graph such that no two adjacent vertices are of the same color; this is called a vertex coloring. Similarly, an edge coloring assigns a color to each edge so that no two adjacent edges are of the same color, and a face coloring of a planar graph assigns a color to each face or region so that no two faces that share a boundary have the same color. Vertex coloring is often used to introduce graph coloring problems, since other coloring problems can be transformed into a vertex coloring instance. For example, an edge coloring of a graph is just a vertex coloring of its line graph, and a face coloring of a plane graph is just a vertex coloring of its dual. However, non-vertex coloring problems are often stated and studied as-is. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
