1. (a) Find the number of spanning trees in the graph illustrated below.

(7 marks)
(b) Draw two graphs that have the same degree sequence (4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3), with one of
them being planar and the other nonplanar. Justify why they have the property.
(6 marks)
(c) Suppose Nottingham Trent University have asked you to schedule 12 meetings of
student committees, with each meeting lasting 3 hours. You have been told that
every meeting should take place from 2-5pm on a Wednesday afternoon, and that
several students participate in more than one committee. Therefore, you need to
arrange the schedule in such a way so that each student can attend all committee
meetings to which they belong. You have decided to model the above scheduling
task as a graph colouring problem.
(i) What will the set of vertices represent?
(2 marks)
(ii) What will each edge correspond to?
(2 marks)
(iii) Will you colour the vertices or the edges?
(1 mark)
(iv) What will the colours denote?
(2 marks)
(v) Assume you have been told that the graph you designed can be properly
coloured with 3 colours. Would it be possible for all committee meetings to be
scheduled within February? Justify your answer.
 (2 marks)
(d) Can
f (k) = k6 − 12k5 + 54k4 − 112k3 + 105k2 − 36k
be the chromatic polynomial of a simple planar graph? Justify your answer. (3

marks)