How is any of this relevant to how a virus is spread? Remember that viruses are spread by hosts so it will depend on how people move about. There is no probability wavefunction to collapse here.
@TanMath Yes, but there are different factors at play here. Water running downhill will also take the shortest path. My point is that none of this is relevant when thinking of how hosts spread viruses. Why would the host take the shortest path?
Consider 5 cities in a circle. The shortest path will be the circle itself but if the virus is carried by John, the salesman, he could visit city4, then 3, then 1, then 5, then 2. That would be how the virus spread.
@TanMath My point is that when modelling the movement of humans, we can't assume they will take the most efficient path. It will depend on a host of other factors.
@terdon Ok... how should I go about researching about this? I am very interested in applying the shortest path problem to science in general, especially biology...
It sounds like you are interested in Systems Biology. Give that a try.
I'd be happy to chat more but it'll have to be tomorrow. It's 2am here and I just got home. Not really the best time for a detailed scientific discussion.
