An animation of the A* algorithm as it explores the North American freight train network (source: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://cta.ornl.gov/transnet/">http://cta.ornl.gov/transnet/</a>) to find the optimum path between Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. The tracks are drawn as great circles and the great circle distance is used to compute both edge lengths and the heuristic function in A*.
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<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>