© The University of Melbourne 1994-2000.This note is very similar to the one related to the N-Queens problem
So we raise the eternal question: Why should this puzzle be of interest to the OR/MS community?
Good question!
Firstly, in all likelihood, this puzzle stands the chance of soon becoming an integral part of the OR/MS folklore. Secondly, it poses a challenge to "traditional" OR/MS.
Concerning the first point, now that constraint programming is part of OR/MS, this puzzle will become an obvious example of the relationship between constraint programming and .... integer programming.
As to the challenge, well let's see:
Assignment
- Formulate this game as a conventional OR/MS optimization problem.
- Use one of traditional OR/MS software packages to solve the problem.
In any case, the objective of this module is just to provide you with a user-friendly facility to experiment with the basic elements of this puzzle.
We do plan to use it in modules on branch and bound and dynamic programming.