On Dec 7, 2007 10:12 AM, Ford, Mike <M.Ford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 07 December 2007 02:14, tedd wrote: > > > > Now, what I need is a way to analyze the distribution of the current > > service providers to see if a given location is open to being sold as > > a "preferred" position -- do you see what I mean? > > > > Another example, let's say we have four "preferred" service providers > > at the same location. Obviously, we could not sell another > > "preferred" position within 100 miles. > > > > Another example, let's say we have four "preferred" service providers > > 100 miles apart, clearly we can sell more "preferred" positions. But, > > the number of positions available depends upon the distribution of > > the original four. If they were located in a straight line, then we > > could sell two positions between each one. But, if they were > > distributed in a square, we could only sell one. Do you see? > > A simplistic but effective way would be: > > (1) Locate all "preferred" providers within 50 miles of the potential new > one (presumably a maximum of four!). > > (2) For each of these, find how many suppliers are within their 50-mile > catchment radius. > > If any of the answers at step 2 is four, you lose; if none of them is, you > win. > > I can't think of any obvious ways to optimize this, but then I never did > properly "get" the travelling salesman or 4-colour problem! im ashamed to admit i blew off a couple of linear algebra classes and a calc-based stats class in college. had i paid attention, this might still be a trivial problem =/ ..., bah! -nathan
