Edexcel FD1 Specimen — Question 3

Exam BoardEdexcel
ModuleFD1 (Further Decision 1)
SessionSpecimen
TopicTravelling Salesman

3. (a) Explain clearly the difference between the classical travelling salesperson problem and the practical travelling salesperson problem.
ABCDEFG
A-172416211841
B17-35253031\(x\)
C2435-28203532
D162528-291945
E21302029-2235
F1831351922-37
G41\(x\)32453537-
The table shows the least distances, in km, by road between seven towns, A, B, C, D, E, F and G . The least distance between B and G is \(x \mathrm {~km}\), where \(x > 25\) Preety needs to visit each town at least once, starting and finishing at A. She wishes to minimise the total distance she travels.
(b) Starting by deleting B and all of its arcs, find a lower bound for Preety's route. Preety found the nearest neighbour routes from each of A and C . Given that the sum of the lengths of these routes is 331 km ,
(c) find \(x\), making your method clear.
(d) Write down the smallest interval that you can be confident contains the optimal length of Preety's route. Give your answer as an inequality.