A line of engineering research seeks to develop computers that can tackle a class of challenges called combinatorial optimization problems. These are common in real-world applications such as ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Applied mathematicians use math to model real-world situations. Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision via Getty Images You can probably ...

The traveling salesman problem is considered a prime example of a combinatorial optimization problem. Now a Berlin team led by theoretical physicist Prof. Dr. Jens Eisert of Freie Universität Berlin ...

You can probably think of a time when you’ve used math to solve an everyday problem, such as calculating a tip at a restaurant or determining the square footage of a room. But what role does math play ...

P vs. NP asks: are these two classes actually the same? If P = NP, then every “hard” problem is secretly fast to solve; we ...

You make decisions every day. Some are big, and some are small. But even the small decisions involve a great deal of complexity. Let me show you what I mean. Take something you probably do regularly: ...

You can probably think of a time when you’ve used math to solve an everyday problem, such as calculating a tip at a restaurant or determining the square footage of a room. But what role does math play ...