Predicting The Length Of Solutions To Problems

T h i s papier i s concerned w i t h a c l a s s o f problems whose s o l u t i o n s a re in a sense l i n e a r . Severa l f o rma l i sms have been used to d e s c r i b e such prob lems [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 7 , 9 ] , b u t the c e n t r a l i d e a l can be s i m p l i f i e d and summarised as f o l l o w s The u n i v e r s e is a network c o n s i s t i n g of a s e t S={s, } of o b j e c t s connected by a se t E of edges. A p rob lem is the task o f f i n d i n g a pa th f rom one o b j e c t s . t o ano the r o b j e c t s . . A s o l u t i o n con 3 s i s t s then o f a sequence o f o b j e c t s