What kinds of problems are solved by algorithms ?

What kinds of problems are solved by algorithms?

An algorithm can be specified in English, as a computer program, or even as a hardware design. The only requirement is that the specification must provide a precise description of the computational procedure to be followed.What kinds of problems are solved by algorithms ?

Sorting is by no means the only computational problem for which algorithms have been developed. You probably suspected as much when you saw the size of this book Practical applications of algorithms are ubiquitous and include the following.

examples:

• The Human Genome Project has the goals of identifying all the 100,000 genes in human DNA, determining the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA, storing this information in databases, and developing tools for data analysis. Each of these steps requires sophisticated algorithms. While the solutions to the various problems involved are beyond the scope of this book, ideas from many of the chapters in this book are used in the solution of these biological problems, thereby enabling scientists to accomplish tasks while using resources efficiently. The savings are in time, both human and
machine, and in money, as more information can be extracted from laboratory
techniques.

 

• The Internet enables people all around the world to quickly access and retrieve large amounts of information. In order to do so, clever algorithms are employed to manage and manipulate this large volume of data. Examples of problems which must be solved include finding good routes on which the data will travel -->techniques for solving such problems appear in Chapter 24, and using a search engine to quickly find pages on which particular information resides -->related techniques are in Chapters 11 and 32.

• Electronic commerce enables goods and services to be negotiated and exchanged electronically. The ability to keep information such as credit card numbers,passwords, and bank statements private is essential if electronic commerce is to be used widely. Public-key cryptography and digital signatures --> covered in Chapter 31 are among the core technologies used and are based on numerical algorithms and number theory.

• In manufacturing and other commercial settings, it is often important to allocate scarce resources in the most beneficial way. An oil company may wish to know where to place its wells in order to maximize its expected profit. A candidate for the presidency of the United States may want to determine where to spend money buying campaign advertising in order to maximize the chances of winning an election. An airline may wish to assign crews to flights in the least expensive way possible, making sure that each flight is covered and that
government regulations regarding crew scheduling are met. An Internet service provider may wish to determine where to place additional resources in order to serve its customers more effectively. All of these are examples of problems that can be solved using linear programming, which we shall study in Chapter 29.

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