The Chinese Postman Problem is an example of a problem in
discrete mathematics and graph theory. The problem is thought to have
originated from an old Chinese puzzle involving a postman. In this
puzzle, a postman has to go through many streets to deliver letters and
wishes to do it in the shortest distance possible.
In mathematical language, it is a problem in graph theory which seeks to
find the minimum length closed walk that traverses each edge at least
once. Finding an optimal solution in a graph with both directed and
undirected edges is NP-complete.
The Chinese Postman Problem may also got its name because
it was proposed by Mei-Ko Kwan, a Chinese mathematician, in 1962. An
alternative and more modern name is “Route Inspection Problem”.
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