Letter to the Editor—A Variant on the Shortest-Route Problem

Abstract

The shortest-route problem has been treated by Dantzig [1] with the simplex-method, by Bellman [2] with ‘dynamic programming,’ and by the author with a simple analog computer [3] and with an algorithm derived from a hydraulic analog (unpublished). There is a simple variant on this problem the solution of which is obvious, and yet it does not fit into the formal structure of any of these theories. I present the problem and its solution less for their intrinsic interest than because they may suggest other solvable problems.