Algorithmic Adventures From Knowledge to Magic
The ?rst and foremost goal of this lecture series was to show the beauty, depth and usefulness of the key ideas in computer science. While working on the lecture notes, we came to understand that one can recognize the true spirit of a scienti?c discipline
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Juraj Hromkoviˇc
Algorithmic Adventures From Knowledge to Magic
Prof. Dr. Juraj Hromkoviˇc ETH Zentrum Department of Computer Science Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 8092 Zürich Switzerland [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-540-85985-7 e-ISBN 978-3-540-85986-4 DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-85986-4 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009926059 ACM Computing Classification (1998): K.3, A.1, K.2, F.2, G.2, G.3 c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: KünkelLopka GmbH, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
For Urs Kirchgraber Burkhard Monien Adam Okr´ uhlica P´eˇta and Peter Rossmanith Georg Schnitger Erich Valkema Klaus and Peter Widmayer
and all those who are fascinated by science
Science is an innerly compact entity. Its division into different subject areas is conditioned not only by the essence of the matter but, first and foremost, by the limited capability of human beings in the process of getting insight. Max Planck
Preface The public image of computer science does not reflect its true nature. The general public and especially high school students identify computer science with a computer driving license. They think that studying computer science is not a challenge, and that anybody can learn it. Computer science is not considered a scientific discipline but a collection of computer usage skills. This is a consequence of the misconception that teaching computer science is important because almost everybody possesses a computer. The software industry also behaved in a short-sighted manner, by putting too much pressure on training people in the use of their specific software products, Searching for a way out, ETH Zurich offered a public lecture series called The Open Class — Seven Wonders of Informatics in the fall of 2005. The lecture notes of this first Open Class were published in German by Teubner in 2006. Ten lectures of this Open Class form the basis of Algorithmic Adventures.
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Preface
The first and foremost goal of this lecture series was to show the beauty, depth and usefulness of the key ideas in computer science. While wor
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