In graph theory, a branch of mathematics, the Chinese postman problem (CPP), postman tour or route inspection problem is to find a shortest closed path or circuit that visits every edge of a (connected) undirected graph. When the graph has an Eulerian circuit (a closed walk that covers every edge once), that circuit is an optimal solution.
Alan Goldman of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards first coined the name 'Chinese Postman Problem' for this problem, as it was originally studied by the Chinese mathematician Mei-Ku Kuan in 1962.
Read more about Route Inspection Problem: Eulerian Paths and Circuits, T-joins, Solution, Variants
Famous quotes containing the words route, inspection and/or problem:
“By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of spaceout of time.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (18091849)
“Thus the orb he roamed
With narrow search, and with inspection deep
Considered every creature, which of all
Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.”
—John Milton (16081674)
“Hypocrisy is the essence of snobbery, but all snobbery is about the problem of belonging.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)