Math goes to the Movies.. It’s the year of the Travelling Salesman

This film about the P=NP problem will screen in Philadelphia on June 16th. While the title, Travelling Salesman, is an allusion to the TSP, the actual subject of the movie is the P=NP problem of which the TSP is a subset.

Over at Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP they have an interesting evaluation of the trailer and some of the mathiness behind the film.

Their summary?

Despite our caveat that a solution to TSP might not be to die for, let alone to kill for, it would certainly be a huge change in our knowledge of the world. The implications could be unlimited. We certainly hope the movie raises awareness of computer science theory and the life importance of its subject matter.

If you would like to learn more about the history of the TSP, check out Bill Cook’s book In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman that is referenced in Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP post.