On a daily basis, the Vampire Van is dispatched from Maplewood Hospital to picku

Question

On a daily basis, the Vampire Van is dispatched from Maplewood Hospital to pickup blood and platelet donations made at its local donation centers. The distances in miles between all locations may be found in the table below.

A.The Vampire Van travels from the Hospital (A) to (B) to (C) to (D) to (E) and then returns to the Hospital (A). What is the total number of miles that the van must travel using this route?

Route ABCDEA requires a total distance of ___miles. (Enter your response rounded to one decimal place.)

B. Using Maplewood Hospital as the beginning location, create a route using the Nearest Neighbor heuristic. What is the total number of miles that the van must travel using this route?

The new route is A __, __, __, __, A and requires a total distance of ____ miles (Enter your response rounded to one decimal place.)

C. Using Maplewood Hospital as the beginning location, create a route using the Nearest Neighbor heuristic. What is the total number of miles that the van must travel using this route? Route?

D. Using Westbrook as the beginning? location, create a route using the Nearest Neighbor heuristic. What is the total number of miles that the van must travel using this? route?

Maplewood Hospital (A)

City Center Donation Site (B)

Westbrook Donation Site (C)

Municipal Park Donation Site (D)

Valley Hills Donation Site (E)

Maplewood Hospital (A)

---

5.6

7.5

6.8

4.3

City Center Donation Site (B)

5.6

----

6.6

5.4

5.2

Westbrook Donation Site (C)

7.5

6.6

-----

3.4

3.8

Municipal Park Donation Site (D)

6.8

5.4

3.4

-----

5.1

Valley Hills Donation Site (E)

4.3

5.2

3.8

5.1

-----

Maplewood Hospital (A)

City Center Donation Site (B)

Westbrook Donation Site (C)

Municipal Park Donation Site (D)

Valley Hills Donation Site (E)

Maplewood Hospital (A)

---

5.6

7.5

6.8

4.3

City Center Donation Site (B)

5.6

----

6.6

5.4

5.2

Westbrook Donation Site (C)

7.5

6.6

-----

3.4

3.8

Municipal Park Donation Site (D)

6.8

5.4

3.4

-----

5.1

Valley Hills Donation Site (E)

4.3

5.2

3.8

5.1

-----

Explanation / Answer

I'll give you the key concept behind this question. You should be easily able to build from there.

Now, note that we are given a table which tells us the distance between different points in a particular area.

1) ABCDEA - What is the distance the van travels for this route:

Let us solve it step by step:

The total distance can be obtained by adding up the above figures, which is:

4.3 + 5.1 + 3.4 + 6.6 + 5.6 = 25 miles

Hence, the van has to travel 25 miles to cover this route

2. Now, let us see what the nearest neighbour route tells us. The heuristic is simple - it tells us that if we start from a particular location, the next location that we select should have the shortest distance from the starting point.

Given we start from A.

The route as per Nearest Neighbour algorithm is A->E->C->D->B->A, with a distance of 4.3+3.8+3.4+5.1+5.4 = 22 miles

Thus, the van will have to travel 22 miles with the above route using the Nearest Neighbour algorithm. Note how this is less than what we computed in question 1)

Question 3) and question 2) seem to be the same. So please check

4) We now have to do the same thing using Westbrook as the starting location.

This is a very simple exercise if you've understood the above explanations. I'm quickly laying it out for you:

The new route is C->D->E->A->B->C = 3.4+5.1+4.3+5.6+6.6 = 25 miles

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse O
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.