The Four Color Theorem

The Four Color Theorem. The Four Color Problem dates back to 1852 when Francis Guthrie, while trying to color the map of counties of England noticed that four colors sufficed. He asked his brother Frederick if it was true that any map can be colored using four colors in such a way that adjacent regions (i.e. those sharing a common boundary segment, not just a point) receive different colors. Frederick Guthrie then communicated the conjecture to DeMorgan. The first printed reference is due to Cayley in 1878.

Published: Apr. 18th, 2006. Categorized: . Tagged: Color

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