Distance table
A distance table shows the distance between two geographic locations, often large cities. The distance is given as the crow flies or for a specific means of transport.
Distance tables can be found u. a. in atlases.
However, distance tables can also be found in IT and communication technology in routing . The initial situation of the traveling salesman's problem of graph theory can also be represented by a distance table. In graph theory , however, one does not speak of distance tables, but of adjacency matrices .
example
| A. | B. | C. | D. | E. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. | . | 2 | 5 | 9 | 14th |
| B. | 2 | . | 7th | 15th | 27 |
| C. | 5 | 7th | . | 9 | 23 |
| D. | 9 | 15th | 9 | . | 12 |
| E. | 14th | 27 | 23 | 12 | . |
From the distance table above, the distance from A to E can be read off by looking for the value A on the right axis and moving down in this column until the value E appears on the north axis. The distance 14 is thus obtained.
In the simplest case, the distance table is symmetrical with respect to the diagonals and thus offers exactly the same information in the two halves of the triangle. But there are often z. B. in one half of the distance information for the road and in the other half for the rail connection. Alternatively, the other half can also be used to select a different location, e.g. B. Cities of Germany and cities of Europe.