Skip to content

11 Traveling Santa Problem

© Zyanya Santuario, MATH+

Author: Dion Gijswijt (TU Delft)

Project: 4TU.AMI

Challenge

Presently, Santa is on a mission to deliver gifts to children. His journey spans six cities, denoted as A to F. Starting from Santa’s Workshop (SW), he must select one among A, B, C, D, E, or F to begin his visit.

The reindeers, tired from playing, can’t travel long distances anymore. This necessitates Santa to chart the shortest route possible. He has a map, which indicates flying distances between cities along connecting lines, and the circles display the distances from SW to each city.

Karte_Gijswijt

Santa has to choose now the shortest sequence for visiting the cities before returning to Santa’s Workshop. For instance, if he takes the route SW-F-A-E-B-C-D-SW, the total journey length adds up to 16+15+18+16+12+11+17=105.

What is the length of the shortest tour that Santa can take?

Possible Answers:

  1. 104
  2. 103
  3. 102
  4. 101
  5. 100
  6. 99
  7. 98
  8. 97
  9. 96
  10. 95