12. A* Search 1

Note that the path costs here add up together (i.e. Arad >> Sibiu >> Oradea is 140 + 151 = 291), while the estimated distance is given only from the current end node of the path.

Rimnicu Vilcea and Fagaras hardly increased in total value under \large f even though they added 80 and 99, respectively, in path cost, as their estimated distance to the goal decreased. Since they are much more in the specific direction of our goal of Bucharest, the search space is much more inclined to expand to them under A*, similar to greedy best-first search.