CONTENTS

 Introduction
 Graph Theory
 Some Definitions
 What is Four-color conjecture?
 Four-Color Theorem
 Note
 Some Examples
 History
 The Five-Color theorem (with proof)
 Conclusion
 References
Introduction

The famous four-color theorem seems to have been first proposed by Mobius in 1840, later
by DeMorgan and the Guthrie brothers in 1852, and again by Cayley in 1878. The problem of
proving this theorem has a distinguished history, details of which abound in the literature.
The statement of the theorem may be introduced as follows. In coloring a geographical map
it is customary to give different colors to any two countries that have a segment of their
boundaries in common. It has been found empirically that any map, no matter how many
countries it neither contains nor how they are situated, can be so coloured by using only
four different colors. The map of India requires four colors in the states bordering Madhya
Pradesh. The fact that no map was ever found whose coloring requires more than four
colors suggests the mathematical theorem.
Graph Theory

Graph theory is the study of graphs in mathematics, which are mathematical structures
used to model pairwise relation between objects. The graph is made up of vertices, nodes or
points, which are connected, by edges, arcs or lines.
In the most common sense of the term, a graph is an ordered pairG = (V, E) comprising
asetV of vertices or nodes or points together with a set E of edges or arcs or lines, which are
2-element subsets of V (i.e. an edge is associated with two vertices, and that association
takes the form of the unordered pair comprising those two vertices). To avoid ambiguity,
this type of graph may be described precisely as undirectedand simple.

Some examples:
Some definitions
Isolated vertex:
A vertex of a graph, which is not adjacent to any other vertex of a graph is called isolated.
Parallel edge:
If more then one edge exists between the same pair of vertices then these edges are called
parallel edge.
Self loop:
If there exist an edge so that both of its end vertices are same then such edge is called self-
loop.
Simple graph:
A graph having no self-loops& parallel edges is called a simple graph.

Pseudo Graph:
A graph having loops and multiple edges is called a pseudo graph.

Multigraph:
A graph having multiple edges but no loops is called multigraph.
Complete Graph:
A simple graph is called a complete graph if there exists an edge between every pair of
vertices.

Degree of a vertex:
Degree of a vertex is the number of edges incident to the vertex.
Planar Graph:
A graph is said to be planar if there exists some Geometric representation of the graph,
which can be drawn on a plane such that no two of its edges intersect. A graph that cannot
be drawn on a plane without a crossover between its edges is called nonplanar.
A drawing of a geometric representation of a graph on any surface such that no edges
intersect is called embedding.
What is the Four-Color Conjecture?

It states that four colors are sufficient for coloring any atlas (i.e. a map on a
plane) such that the countries with common boundaries have different colors.

Picture showing the World map drawn using four colors.

FOUR-COLOR THEOREM:

The Four-Color Theorem states that any map in a plane can be colored using four colors in
such a way that regions sharing a common boundary or adjacent regions (other than a single
point) do not share the same color (Two regions are said to be adjacent if they have
common edge between them, note that one or more vertices in common doesn’t make two
regions adjacent).
The proper coloring of regions is also called the map coloring, referring to the fact that in an
atlas different countries are colored such that countries with common boundaries are
shown in different colors.
We are not interested in just properly coloring the regions of a given graph. We are
interested in a coloring that uses the minimum numbers of colors. This leads to the most
famous conjecture in graph theory “The Four-Color conjecture” that has been mentioned
above.
Three colors are adequate for simpler maps, but an additional fourth color is required for
some maps, such as a map which region is surrounded by an odd number of other regions
that touch each other in a cycle. The five-color theorem, which has a short elementary
proof, states that five colors are sufficient to color a map. However proving that four colors
sufficiency turned out to be significantly harder. A number of false proofs and counter
examples have appeared since its first statement but no one has come up with the exact
proof of “The Four-Color Theorem” yet.

Four-Color theorem used in map

of the United States
Note:

1) Any map can be turned into shapes using a series of dots connected by line.

Here the dots represent the regions of colors.

And the lines represent the regions of borders.

In order to be colored correctly two dots of the same color cannot be connected by a
line.

Two sections that share a common edge cannot be colored. However common
corners are okay.
2)

Each map can be simplified into shape.

Each shape can be simplified into triangle.

Each map=some triangles.

From the map we draw a pentagon having

different colors on its adjacent regions. The
pentagon can be split into three triangles.

3) Each triangle takes only three different shades to color.

We combine the above three

triangles.
 Can be drawn using
only three colors also.

4) Imaginary borders:

In this figure we see that all the regions cannot be split up into triangles, so we use a
imaginary line (dotted line) so that two new triangles are formed so that we can split to
triangles having different colors on its adjacent region.
Some examples:

1)

2)
3)

4) Why not three colors?

??

YELLOW

RE BLU
D E
HISTORY:

The Four-Color Problem is extremely hard to prove & it has a very long history. Many
famous mathematicians have worked the Four-Color conjecture on for the past 100
years. No one has yet been able to prove the theorem or come up with a map (in a
plane) that requires more than 4 colors.

 In 1852, Francis Guthrie first conjectured the theorem using only four colors
(which remained unsolved for a century).
 In 1879, Sir Alfred Kempe proposed a proof for the Four-Color theorem
involving a theory that any map can be maple to look like a map made of
triangles includes a series of vertices known as Kempe chain. This method is
used in the proof of the Five-Color theorem, a weaker form of the Four-Color
Theorem.
 In 1890, Percy John Heawood proposed the Five-Color theorem based on the
Kempe’s Chain. The Five-Color theorem is a result from the Graph Theory
that a given plane separated into regions may be colored using no more than
5 colors in such a way that no two adjacent regions receive the same color
which is easier to prove.
 In 1976, Kenneth Appel along with Wolgang Haken gave the first proof of the
Four-Color Theorem, which requires the use of a computer. They had an
invaluable tool that the earlier mathematicians lacked (modern computers).
The proof has been one of the most controversial of the modern mathematics
because they had made a computer program to check the 4 coloring of all
possible example (1936 of them) and it was also the first mathematical
theorem to be proved with computer help, which draw criticism from many in
the mathematical community. Appel & Haken agreed in a 1977 interview that
it was not “elegant, concise & completely comprehensible by human
mathematical mind”.
Five-Color Theorem:

The vertices of every planar graph can be properly colored with five colors.

Proof:The theorem will be proved by induction. Since the vertices of all graphs (self-
loop free) with 1,2,3,4, or 5 vertices can be properly colored with five colors, let us
assume that vertices of every planar graph with (n-1) vertices can be properly
colored with five colors. Then, if we prove that any planar graph G with n vertices will
require no more than five colors, we shall prove the theorem.

Consider the planar graph G with n vertices. Since G is planar it must have at least
one vertex with degree five or less (since a planar graph with n-vertices (n>=4) has
at least 4 vertices with degree five or less).

Let the vertex be v. Now let G/be a graph (of n-1 vertices) obtained from G by
deleting vertex v. Then G/requires no more than 5 colors, according to the induction
hypothesis.

Suppose that the vertices in G/have been properly colored and now we add to it v
and all edges incident on v. If the degree of v is 1,2,3,or 4, we have no difficulty in
assigning a proper color to v. This leaves only the case in which the degree of v is
five, and all the five colors have been used in coloring the vertices adjacent to v.

Suppose there is a path in G/between vertices a & c alternately with colors 1 & 3, a
shown in the fig. Then a similar path between b & d, colored alternately with 2 & 4,
cannot exist; otherwise these two paths will intersect and cause G to be non-planar.
If there is no path between b & d colored alternately with colors 2 & 4, starting from
vertex b we can interchange color 2 & 4 of all vertices connected to b through
vertices of alternating colors 2 & 4. This interchange will paint vertex b with color 4
and yet keep G/properly colored.

Since vertex d is still with color 4, we have color 2 left over with which to paint vertex
v.

Had we assumed that there was no path between a & c of vertices painted
alternately with colors 1 and 3, we should have released color 1 or 3 instead of color
2.

Thus the theorem.

Conclusion:
The Four Color Theorem was the first major theorem to be proved using a computer, having
a proof that could not be verified directly by other mathematicians. Despite some worries
about this initially, independent verification soon convinced everyone that the Four Color
Theorem had finally been proved.

Cartographers use the Four-Color Theorem to draw maps. The main one is that map makers
don't need to buy more than four colors to color a map, such that no entities that share a
border have the same color.

Interestingly, despite the problem being motivated by mapmaking, the theorem is not
especially important to the field as most maps were historically drawn with more than four
colors (despite only four being necessary). In addition, most maps occurring in practice only
require three colors.
References:

 Graph Theory with Applications to Engineering and Computer SciencePaperback–

2009, ByNarsingh Deo

 Introduction to Graph TheoryPaperback– 2002,by Douglas B. West

 SCHAUM'S OUTLINE OF GRAPH THEORYPaperback– 24 Feb 2004, by V. Balakrishnan

 The four color theorem, Book by Rudolf Fritsch

 https://www.mathsisfun.com/activity/coloring.html

 https://brilliant.org/wiki/four-color-theorem/