PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY

LINGAYEN CAMPUS
College of Education
MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD

ACTIVITY 2
MAP COLORING
Objectives:
1. To solve problems by applying the concept of graph coloring theorem;
2. To understand the nature of graph coloring in maps; and
3. To appreciate the application of graph coloring in real-world problems.

Graph Coloring started in the mid-1800’s when Francis Guthrie tried to color the map of England so
that it would be easy to distinguish the countries sharing a common border. He made sure that countries
with the same border must have different colors. After many attempts, he found out that a maximum of
four colors were required to color the map.

Figure 1. Four color theorem in coloring the world map.

The map shows the four color theorem in practice. This theorem states that “given any separation
of a plane into contiguous regions, producing a figure called a map, no more than four colors are required
to color the regions of the map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. Adjacent means that
two regions share a common boundary curve segment, not merely a corner where three or more regions
meet.”
In actual fact, the map uses 5 colors, if you include the white used for the oceans, although it
would still technically be possible to draw a world map using only 4 colors, if landlocked countries shared
the same color as the ocean.
Despite the motivation from coloring maps of countries, the theorem is not of particular interest to
cartographers. According to an article by the Math Historian Kenneth May, "Maps utilizing only four colors
are rare, and those that do usually require only three. Books on cartography and the history of mapmaking
do not mention the four-color property". The theorem also does not guarantee the usual cartographic
requirement that non-contiguous regions of the same be colored identically.

PROBLEM

A mapmaker wants to use as few colors as possible to color the map of Pangasinan, but no two
neighboring towns/cities can be colored the same color. Below is a blank map of Pangasinan. Using
coloring theorem, try to color the map with fewest color as possible.
For your reference and guidance in map coloring, watch the video in this link [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANY7X-_wpNs ] to further understand the concept of map coloring.
MAP OF PANGASINAN (using coloring theorem)