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