<application, mathematics> Given a set of items, each with a
cost and a value, determine the number of each item to include
in a collection so that the total cost is less than some given
cost and the total value is as large as possible.
The 0/1 knapsack problem restricts the number of each items to
zero or one.
Such constraint satisfaction problems are often solved using
dynamic programming.
The general knapsack problem is NP-hard, and this has led to
attempts to use it as the basis for public-key encryption
systems. Several such attempts failed because the knapsack
problems they produced were in fact solvable by
polynomial-time algorithms.
[Are there any trusted knapsack-based public-key
cryptosystems?].
(1995-04-10)
Nearby terms:
KMODEL « KMS « kn « knapsack problem » KNI » Knights of the Lambda-Calculus » knowbot
