map-colouring problem
mathematics
Learn about this topic in these articles:
major reference
- In number game: Map-colouring problems
Cartographers have long recognized that no more than four colours are needed to shade the regions on any map in such a way that adjoining regions are distinguished by colour. The corresponding mathematical question, framed in 1852, became the celebrated “four-colour map problem”:…
Read More
topological graph theory
- In graph theory
…topological graph theory is the map-colouring problem. This problem is an outgrowth of the well-known four-colour map problem, which asks whether the countries on every map can be coloured by using just four colours in such a way that countries sharing an edge have different colours. Asked originally in the…
Read More