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Pancakes, Puzzles, and Polynomials: Cracking the Cracker Barrel Game

Pancakes, Puzzles, and Polynomials: Cracking the Cracker Barrel Game. Christopher Frost Michael Peck. The Cracker Barrel Game. The Cracker Barrel Problem (CB).

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Pancakes, Puzzles, and Polynomials: Cracking the Cracker Barrel Game

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  1. Pancakes,Puzzles,and Polynomials:Cracking the Cracker Barrel Game Christopher Frost Michael Peck

  2. The Cracker Barrel Game

  3. The Cracker Barrel Problem (CB) Given an arbitrarily sized board with some initial configuration of pegs, is there a sequence of jumps such that the board will be left with one remaining peg?

  4. How Hard Is It To Solve The Cracker Barrel Game? • Straightforward way of solving the peg board puzzle: • Try all possible ways to move a peg • Look at all possible ways of moving a peg for each of the above moves • ... • Until find a sequence of moves with one peg left or run out of possible moves (no solution) • How long will this take to solve? • Is this the fastest way?

  5. Complexity • Measuring complexity: • How does the time needed to solve a problem grow as the size of the input to the problem grows? • Example: linear-time • If the size of the input doubles, the time needed to solve doubles.

  6. Complexity:A Look at How Growth Rates Compare

  7. P NP NP-C or NP-C P=NP • Does P=NP? Are all the problems in NP also in P? • The biggest unanswered question in computer science. Complexity Classes:The Big Three • Problems that can be solved in nk time • Problems that can be verified in nk time • Problems that are at least as hard as all other problems in NP • P – Polynomial • NP – Nondeterministic Polynomial • NP-Complete

  8. Example NP-Complete Problems • Protein Folding • Traveling Salesperson • Map coloring • Cracker Barrel?

  9. Project Goal Is CB (the Cracker Barrel problem) NP-Complete?

  10. Proving NP-Completeness • Must show two conditions: • Problem belongs to NP • Is at least as hard as any problem in NP

  11. Example NP-Complete Problem: 3-SAT Expression Clauses Terms • (x1 x2 x4)  (x1 x2 x3) • Is there an assignment of values to these terms that makes the above expression true? • Yes! • One solution: If x1 = true and x3 = true, the above expression is true.

  12. Proving NP-Completeness:Solving any problem in NP using CB • Reduction: Showing that a known NP-complete problem can be solved using a solver for CB. 3-SAT Solver CB Solver 3-SAT to CB Transformer Input to 3-SAT Solver Answer

  13. Ø Ø Ø Ø x x x x x x x x 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 x 1 x C 2 1 x 4 Ø x 1 x C 2 2 x 3 3-SAT to CB Transformer • Represent a logical expression on a peg board. • (x1 x2 x4)  (x1 x2 x3)

  14. The Non-transitive Peg Hierarchy of Power = > 1. 2. > > a > b: a can jump b, but b can’t jump a. x x 1 1 3-SAT to CB Transformer: Inside The Mysterious Blue Tile Blue Tile Goal: Allow green peg across iff yellow has come down.

  15. 3-SAT to CB Transformer

  16. The Non-transitive Peg Hierarchy of Power = > 1. 2. > > a > b: a can jump b, but b can’t jump a. 3-SAT to CB Transformer: Inside The Green Tile Green Tile Goal: Reduce the number of green pegs to one iff every clause had one or more pegs cross the board. x 1 C x 2 1 x 4

  17. Progress and Implications • Progress: • Our best known CB solver takes exponential time • Proved a variation of CB is NP-Complete • Implications: • Is it possible to create a CB solver that runs in polynomial time? • If so, P=NP • If not, P≠NP (Given that CB is NP-complete)

  18. Questions?

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