Chapter 13.3, Problem 30E

Basketball Teams Jasmine lives in Elko, Nevada (E), and is planning a trip to see the following basketball teams play on their home courts: Utah Jazz (J), Sacramento Kings (K), Portland Trailblazers (T), and Golden State Warriers (W). The approximate distances among these locations are as follows: E to J is 230 miles, E to K is 420 miles, E to T is 625 miles, E to W is 501 miles, J to K is 650 miles, J to T is 766 miles, J to W is 730 miles, K to T is 577 miles, K to W is 84 miles, and T to W is 631 miles.

Trey Burke (left) of the Utah Jazz and Jeff Teague of the Atlanta Hawks

1. a. Represent this traveling salesman problem with a complete, weighted graph showing the distances along the edges.
2. b. Use the nearest neighbor method to approximate the optimal route for Jasmine to visit each location and return to her home. Give the cost of the route determined.
3. c. Randomly select another route for Jasmine to visit the locations and return to her home and compute the cost of this route. Compare this cost with the cost determined in part (b).