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In computability theory, the halting problem is a decision problem which can be stated as follows:
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Based on mathworld, "The determination of whether a Turing machine will come to a halt given a particular input program. The halting problem is solvable for machines with less than four states".
A description of a program and a finite input, decide whether the program finishes running or will run forever, given that input.
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Alan Turing proved in 1936 that a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for all possible program-input pairs cannot exist. We say that the halting problem is undecidable over Turing machines. Copeland (2004) attributes the actual term halting problem to Martin Davis.--[[User:Kim297|Kim297]] 10:14, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
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--[[User:lee462|lee462]] 03:48, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Revision as of 22:48, 21 November 2008

Based on mathworld, "The determination of whether a Turing machine will come to a halt given a particular input program. The halting problem is solvable for machines with less than four states".


--lee462 03:48, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Alumni Liaison

Abstract algebra continues the conceptual developments of linear algebra, on an even grander scale.

Dr. Paul Garrett