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Postage Stamp Problem
The postage stamp problem is a mathematical riddle that asks what is the smallest postage value which cannot be placed on an envelope, if the latter can hold only a limited number of stamps, and these may only have certain specified face values.Jeffrey Shallit (2001)''The computational complexity of the local postage stamp problem'' SIGACT News 33 (1) (March 2002), 90-94. Accessed on 2009-12-30. For example, suppose the envelope can hold only three stamps, and the available stamp values are 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, and 20 cents. Then the solution is 13 cents; since any smaller value can be obtained with at most three stamps (e.g. 4 = 2 + 2, 8 = 5 + 2 + 1, etc.), but to get 13 cents one must use at least four stamps. Mathematical definition Mathematically, the problem can be formulated as follows: : Given an integer ''m'' and a set ''V'' of positive integers, find the smallest integer ''z'' that cannot be written as the sum ''v''1 + ''v''2 + ··· + ''v''''k'' of some number '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brute Force Search
In computer science, brute-force search or exhaustive search, also known as generate and test, is a very general problem-solving technique and algorithmic paradigm that consists of systematically enumerating all possible candidates for the solution and checking whether each candidate satisfies the problem's statement. A brute-force algorithm that finds the divisors of a natural number ''n'' would enumerate all integers from 1 to n, and check whether each of them divides ''n'' without remainder. A brute-force approach for the eight queens puzzle would examine all possible arrangements of 8 pieces on the 64-square chessboard and for each arrangement, check whether each (queen) piece can attack any other. While a brute-force search is simple to implement and will always find a solution if it exists, implementation costs are proportional to the number of candidate solutionswhich in many practical problems tends to grow very quickly as the size of the problem increases ( §Combinator ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backtracking
Backtracking is a class of algorithms for finding solutions to some computational problems, notably constraint satisfaction problems, that incrementally builds candidates to the solutions, and abandons a candidate ("backtracks") as soon as it determines that the candidate cannot possibly be completed to a valid solution. The classic textbook example of the use of backtracking is the eight queens puzzle, that asks for all arrangements of eight chess queens on a standard chessboard so that no queen attacks any other. In the common backtracking approach, the partial candidates are arrangements of ''k'' queens in the first ''k'' rows of the board, all in different rows and columns. Any partial solution that contains two mutually attacking queens can be abandoned. Backtracking can be applied only for problems which admit the concept of a "partial candidate solution" and a relatively quick test of whether it can possibly be completed to a valid solution. It is useless, for example ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynomial Time
In computer science, the time complexity is the computational complexity that describes the amount of computer time it takes to run an algorithm. Time complexity is commonly estimated by counting the number of elementary operations performed by the algorithm, supposing that each elementary operation takes a fixed amount of time to perform. Thus, the amount of time taken and the number of elementary operations performed by the algorithm are taken to be related by a constant factor. Since an algorithm's running time may vary among different inputs of the same size, one commonly considers the worst-case time complexity, which is the maximum amount of time required for inputs of a given size. Less common, and usually specified explicitly, is the average-case complexity, which is the average of the time taken on inputs of a given size (this makes sense because there are only a finite number of possible inputs of a given size). In both cases, the time complexity is generally express ... [...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. Def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coin Problem
The coin problem (also referred to as the Frobenius coin problem or Frobenius problem, after the mathematician Ferdinand Frobenius) is a mathematical problem that asks for the largest monetary amount that cannot be obtained using only coins of specified denominations, for example, the largest amount that cannot be obtained using only coins of 3 and 5 units is 7 units. The solution to this problem for a given set of coin denominations is called the Frobenius number of the set. The Frobenius number exists as long as the set of coin denominations has no common divisor greater than 1. There is an explicit formula for the Frobenius number when there are only two different coin denominations, ''x'' and ''y'': the Frobenius number is then ''xy'' − ''x'' − ''y''. If the number of coin denominations is three or more, no explicit formula is known. However, for any fixed number of coin denominations, there is an algorithm computing the Frobenius number in polynomial time (in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knapsack Problem
The knapsack problem is a problem in combinatorial optimization: Given a set of items, each with a weight and a value, determine the number of each item to include in a collection so that the total weight is less than or equal to a given limit and the total value is as large as possible. It derives its name from the problem faced by someone who is constrained by a fixed-size knapsack and must fill it with the most valuable items. The problem often arises in resource allocation where the decision-makers have to choose from a set of non-divisible projects or tasks under a fixed budget or time constraint, respectively. The knapsack problem has been studied for more than a century, with early works dating as far back as 1897. The name "knapsack problem" dates back to the early works of the mathematician Tobias Dantzig (1884–1956), and refers to the commonplace problem of packing the most valuable or useful items without overloading the luggage. Applications Knapsack problems ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subset Sum Problem
The subset sum problem (SSP) is a decision problem in computer science. In its most general formulation, there is a multiset S of integers and a target-sum T, and the question is to decide whether any subset of the integers sum to precisely T''.'' The problem is known to be NP. Moreover, some restricted variants of it are NP-complete too, for example: * The variant in which all inputs are positive. * The variant in which inputs may be positive or negative, and T=0. For example, given the set \, the answer is ''yes'' because the subset \ sums to zero. * The variant in which all inputs are positive, and the target sum is exactly half the sum of all inputs, i.e., T = \frac(a_1+\dots+a_n) . This special case of SSP is known as the partition problem. SSP can also be regarded as an optimization problem: find a subset whose sum is at most ''T'', and subject to that, as close as possible to ''T''. It is NP-hard, but there are several algorithms that can solve it reasonably quickly in p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Additive Number Theory
Additive number theory is the subfield of number theory concerning the study of subsets of integers and their behavior under addition. More abstractly, the field of additive number theory includes the study of abelian groups and commutative semigroups with an operation of addition. Additive number theory has close ties to combinatorial number theory and the geometry of numbers. Two principal objects of study are the sumset of two subsets ''A'' and ''B'' of elements from an abelian group ''G'', :A + B = \, and the h-fold sumset of ''A'', :hA = \underset\,. Additive number theory The field is principally devoted to consideration of ''direct problems'' over (typically) the integers, that is, determining the structure of ''hA'' from the structure of ''A'': for example, determining which elements can be represented as a sum from ''hA'', where ''A'' is a fixed subset.Nathanson (1996) II:1 Two classical problems of this type are the Goldbach conjecture (which is the conjecture that 2'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recreational Mathematics
Recreational mathematics is mathematics carried out for recreation (entertainment) rather than as a strictly research and application-based professional activity or as a part of a student's formal education. Although it is not necessarily limited to being an endeavor for amateurs, many topics in this field require no knowledge of advanced mathematics. Recreational mathematics involves mathematical puzzles and games, often appealing to children and untrained adults, inspiring their further study of the subject. The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) includes recreational mathematics as one of its seventeen Special Interest Groups, commenting: Mathematical competitions (such as those sponsored by mathematical associations) are also categorized under recreational mathematics. Topics Some of the more well-known topics in recreational mathematics are Rubik's Cubes, magic squares, fractals, logic puzzles and mathematical chess problems, but this area of mathematics in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Applied Mathematics
Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical science and specialized knowledge. The term "applied mathematics" also describes the professional specialty in which mathematicians work on practical problems by formulating and studying mathematical models. In the past, practical applications have motivated the development of mathematical theories, which then became the subject of study in pure mathematics where abstract concepts are studied for their own sake. The activity of applied mathematics is thus intimately connected with research in pure mathematics. History Historically, applied mathematics consisted principally of applied analysis, most notably differential equations; approximation theory (broadly construed, to include representations, asymptotic methods, variation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
