Explain the term "brute force" as it applies to algorithms.

What will be an ideal response?

The algorithm described here for testing an arbitrary graph for Hamiltonian circuits is an example of a brute force algorithm-one that beats the problem into submission by trying all possibilities. In Chapter 1, we described a brute force algorithm for winning a chess game; it consisted of looking at all possible game scenarios from any given point on and then picking a winning one. This is also an exponential algorithm. Some very practical problems have exponential solution algorithms. For example, an email message that you send over the Internet is routed along the shortest possible path through intermediate computers from your mail server computer to the destination mail server computer. An exponential algorithm to solve this problem would examine all possible paths to the destination and then use the shortest one. As you can imagine, the Internet uses a better (more efficient) algorithm than this one!