Golden Ticket: Chapters 1 and 2

For Your Enjoyment

• P vs NP is one of seven Millenium Prize Problems established by the Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge.

Chapter 1, The Golden Ticket

• NP = Solvable problems where we want an answer.
• P = Solvable problems where we can find the answer quickly.
• What is the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP)? Is this problem in P?
• What is the Partition Problem? Is this problem in P?
• What is the Shortest Path Problem? Is this problem in P?
• What is the largest clique in Facebook? Is this problem in P?

Chapter 2, The Beautiful World

• If P = NP, the world would change dramatically.
• The chapter paints a picture of this world: cancer is easily curable, etc.
• However, most people in the know believe that P <> NP.