NIST

Euclidean traveling salesman problem

(classic problem)

Definition: Find a path of minimum Euclidean distance between points in a plane which includes each point exactly once and returns to its starting point.

See also traveling salesman, spanning tree.

Note: This can be generalized to higher dimensions, for instance, points in a 3-dimensional space. This problem is a special case of traveling salesman since the cost between points is the planar distance instead of arbitrary weights.

Author: PEB


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If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.

Entry modified 17 December 2004.
HTML page formatted Mon Feb 2 13:10:39 2015.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "Euclidean traveling salesman problem", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/euclidntrvls.html