Fantastic Programmable Goo Solves Difficult Math Problems
Blob Math A hypothetical chemical blob solves a traveling salesman problem with 20 points. From "Computation of the Travelling Salesman Problem by a Shrinking Blob" by Jeff Jones and Andrew AdamatzkyA new way of looking at a classic math problem. You've got 20 U.S. cities to visit in one big trip. What's the shortest route you can take? No, this is not a problem from Ticket to Ride. It's the traveling salesman problem, a classic math puzzle that, as MIT Technology Review's arXiv blog explains, actually becomes computationally impossible to do by brute force, once the number of cities is high enough. There are just too many possible routes to calculate. Mathematicians have figured out some optimization equations to solve the problem, but none are perfect. The arXiv blog highlighted another way. Two computing researchers from the University of the West of England came up with a sort of hypothetical, sticky goo that...