School busA school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus. Various configurations of school buses are used worldwide; the most iconic examples are the yellow school buses of the United States which are also found in other parts of the world.
BusA bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for charter purposes, or through private ownership. Although the average bus carries between 30 and 100 passengers, some buses have a capacity of up to 300 passengers. The most common type is the single-deck rigid bus, with double-decker and articulated buses carrying larger loads, and midibuses and minibuses carrying smaller loads.
Polynomial-time approximation schemeIn computer science (particularly algorithmics), a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) is a type of approximation algorithm for optimization problems (most often, NP-hard optimization problems). A PTAS is an algorithm which takes an instance of an optimization problem and a parameter ε > 0 and produces a solution that is within a factor 1 + ε of being optimal (or 1 – ε for maximization problems). For example, for the Euclidean traveling salesman problem, a PTAS would produce a tour with length at most (1 + ε)L, with L being the length of the shortest tour.
Travelling salesman problemThe travelling salesman problem (TSP) asks the following question: "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city?" It is an NP-hard problem in combinatorial optimization, important in theoretical computer science and operations research. The travelling purchaser problem and the vehicle routing problem are both generalizations of TSP.
Knapsack problemThe knapsack problem is the following problem in combinatorial optimization: Given a set of items, each with a weight and a value, determine which items to include in the collection so that the total weight is less than or equal to a given limit and the total value is as large as possible. It derives its name from the problem faced by someone who is constrained by a fixed-size knapsack and must fill it with the most valuable items.
Articulated busAn articulated bus, also referred to as a slinky bus, banana bus, bendy bus, artic bus, tandem bus, double bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, sausage bus or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usually a single-decker, and comprises two or more rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint (articulation) enclosed by protective bellows inside and outside and a cover plate on the floor.
Bus rapid transitBus rapid transit (BRT), also referred to as a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes roadways that are dedicated to buses, and gives priority to buses at intersections where buses may interact with other traffic; alongside design features to reduce delays caused by passengers boarding or leaving buses, or paying fares.
Approximation algorithmIn computer science and operations research, approximation algorithms are efficient algorithms that find approximate solutions to optimization problems (in particular NP-hard problems) with provable guarantees on the distance of the returned solution to the optimal one. Approximation algorithms naturally arise in the field of theoretical computer science as a consequence of the widely believed P ≠ NP conjecture. Under this conjecture, a wide class of optimization problems cannot be solved exactly in polynomial time.
Arc routingArc routing problems (ARP) are a category of general routing problems (GRP), which also includes node routing problems (NRP). The objective in ARPs and NRPs is to traverse the edges and nodes of a graph, respectively. The objective of arc routing problems involves minimizing the total distance and time, which often involves minimizing deadheading time, the time it takes to reach a destination.
Fully polynomial-time approximation schemeA fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) is an algorithm for finding approximate solutions to function problems, especially optimization problems. An FPTAS takes as input an instance of the problem and a parameter ε > 0. It returns as output a value is at least times the correct value, and at most times the correct value. In the context of optimization problems, the correct value is understood to be the value of the optimal solution, and it is often implied that an FPTAS should produce a valid solution (and not just the value of the solution).
Fixed-point theoremIn mathematics, a fixed-point theorem is a result saying that a function F will have at least one fixed point (a point x for which F(x) = x), under some conditions on F that can be stated in general terms. The Banach fixed-point theorem (1922) gives a general criterion guaranteeing that, if it is satisfied, the procedure of iterating a function yields a fixed point.
Shortest path problemIn graph theory, the shortest path problem is the problem of finding a path between two vertices (or nodes) in a graph such that the sum of the weights of its constituent edges is minimized. The problem of finding the shortest path between two intersections on a road map may be modeled as a special case of the shortest path problem in graphs, where the vertices correspond to intersections and the edges correspond to road segments, each weighted by the length of the segment.
Fixed point (mathematics)hatnote|1=Fixed points in mathematics are not to be confused with other uses of "fixed point", or stationary points where math|1=f(x) = 0. In mathematics, a fixed point (sometimes shortened to fixpoint), also known as an invariant point, is a value that does not change under a given transformation. Specifically for functions, a fixed point is an element that is mapped to itself by the function. Formally, c is a fixed point of a function f if c belongs to both the domain and the codomain of f, and f(c) = c.
NP-hardnessIn computational complexity theory, NP-hardness (non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard problem is the subset sum problem. A more precise specification is: a problem H is NP-hard when every problem L in NP can be reduced in polynomial time to H; that is, assuming a solution for H takes 1 unit time, Hs solution can be used to solve L in polynomial time.
Fixed-point iterationIn numerical analysis, fixed-point iteration is a method of computing fixed points of a function. More specifically, given a function defined on the real numbers with real values and given a point in the domain of , the fixed-point iteration is which gives rise to the sequence of iterated function applications which is hoped to converge to a point . If is continuous, then one can prove that the obtained is a fixed point of , i.e., More generally, the function can be defined on any metric space with values in that same space.
Lefschetz fixed-point theoremIn mathematics, the Lefschetz fixed-point theorem is a formula that counts the fixed points of a continuous mapping from a compact topological space to itself by means of traces of the induced mappings on the homology groups of . It is named after Solomon Lefschetz, who first stated it in 1926. The counting is subject to an imputed multiplicity at a fixed point called the fixed-point index. A weak version of the theorem is enough to show that a mapping without any fixed point must have rather special topological properties (like a rotation of a circle).
Vehicle routing problemThe vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a combinatorial optimization and integer programming problem which asks "What is the optimal set of routes for a fleet of vehicles to traverse in order to deliver to a given set of customers?" It generalises the travelling salesman problem (TSP). It first appeared in a paper by George Dantzig and John Ramser in 1959, in which the first algorithmic approach was written and was applied to petrol deliveries. Often, the context is that of delivering goods located at a central depot to customers who have placed orders for such goods.
Public transport bus servicePublic transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. Stagecoach While there are indications of experiments with public transport in Paris as early as 1662, there is evidence of a scheduled "bus route" from Market Street in Manchester to Pendleton in Salford UK, started by John Greenwood in 1824. Another claim for the first public transport system for general use originated in Nantes, France, in 1826.
Brouwer fixed-point theoremBrouwer's fixed-point theorem is a fixed-point theorem in topology, named after L. E. J. (Bertus) Brouwer. It states that for any continuous function mapping a nonempty compact convex set to itself there is a point such that . The simplest forms of Brouwer's theorem are for continuous functions from a closed interval in the real numbers to itself or from a closed disk to itself. A more general form than the latter is for continuous functions from a nonempty convex compact subset of Euclidean space to itself.
Decision problemIn computability theory and computational complexity theory, a decision problem is a computational problem that can be posed as a yes–no question of the input values. An example of a decision problem is deciding by means of an algorithm whether a given natural number is prime. Another is the problem "given two numbers x and y, does x evenly divide y?". The answer is either 'yes' or 'no' depending upon the values of x and y. A method for solving a decision problem, given in the form of an algorithm, is called a decision procedure for that problem.