Example
As a simple example, consider the following hypothetical situation:
- George says he will give you a piano, but only in exchange for a lawnmower.
- Harry says he will give you a lawnmower, but only in exchange for a microwave.
- Jane says she will give you a microwave, but only in exchange for a piano.
We can express this as a graph problem. Let each vertex represent an item, and add an edge from A to B if you must have A to obtain B. Your goal is to get the lawnmower. Unfortunately, you don't have any of the three items, and because this graph is cyclic, you can't get any of them either.
However, suppose you offer George $100 for his piano. If he accepts, this effectively removes the edge from the lawnmower to the piano, because you no longer need the lawnmower to get the piano. Consequently, the cycle is broken, and you can trade twice to get the lawnmower. This one edge constitutes a feedback arc set.
Read more about this topic: Feedback Arc Set
Famous quotes containing the word example:
“Our intellect is not the most subtle, the most powerful, the most appropriate, instrument for revealing the truth. It is life that, little by little, example by example, permits us to see that what is most important to our heart, or to our mind, is learned not by reasoning but through other agencies. Then it is that the intellect, observing their superiority, abdicates its control to them upon reasoned grounds and agrees to become their collaborator and lackey.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)