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I used TSP to optimally stack different types of bowls. I measured all the different pairs of bowls and searched for the shortest route through all the bowls we have. I found that you can split the stacks however you want, I also had an algorithm for that.

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Is the algorithm different from a simple sorted order in this case? The difficulty with TSP is that you have to return to the start, which wouldn't seek to be the case with stacled bowls, unless you're stacking them in a ring somehow.

> The difficulty with TSP is that you have to return to the start

That is not the difficulty with TSP. The problem doesn't get any easier if you can end wherever you please.

Yes, you're right. I misremembered the problem and thought a greedy algorithm would work in that case.

It still seems to me that bowl-stacking is solved by sorting alone, though, which is of course much simpler.

I tend to agree as to bowl-stacking.

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