Question: Professor Olay is consulting for an oil company, which is planning a large pipeline running east to west through an oil field of n wells.

Professor Olay is consulting for an oil company, which is planning a large pipeline running east to west through an oil field of n wells. From each well, a spur pipeline is to be connected directly to the main pipeline along a shortest path (either north or south), as shown in Figure 9.2. Given x- and y-coordinates of the wells, how should the professor pick the optimal location of the main pipeline (the one that minimizes the total length of the spurs)? Show that the optimal location can be determined in linear time.

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In order to find the optimal placement for Professor Olays pipeline we need only find the medians of the ycoordinates of his oil wells as the following proof explains Claim The optimal ycoordinate for ... View full answer

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