Talk:Brute-force search
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The traveling salesman problem is the classic example of this type of problem.
I don't like this example - the previous three show a problem which grows exponentially, while the TSP is one which grows factorially.
On the other hand, I don't know an alternative. Perhaps the wording could be changed to stop suggesting TSP is an exponential problem? r3m0t 23:11, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
D'oh, the time needed to solve TSP does grow exponentially. Remember that n! ~ sqrt(2*pi*n) * (n/e)^n Azotlichid 00:11, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] A much better way to find prime numbers
Just iterate up to the floor of the square root of the number n, and for every number m that fits also record n/m... INVERTED 11:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
- It doesn't say it's efficient, does it? Brute-force search is usually not the most efficient way to do something, but it's simple. --Spoon! 11:00, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] On merging Brute-force with Backtracking
I strongly oppose to the merging. Backtracking is a method that can be used to perform a brute force search. Brute force search can be performed in other ways, the most common being a simple loop through the solution space. On the other hand, backtracking can be used in ways that are not brute-force, by using some specific method, a backtracking algorithm ca determine that a given branch of the search space cannot contain a solution, without examining all the space.Gfonsecabr 17:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
It is false. Backtracking is mostly the same as brute force except the cases you mentioned above and can be used interchangeably. Both articles contain mostly the same content.71.175.43.242 20:48, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
