National University of Singapore

Department of Mathematics
GEK1505 Living with Mathematics
Tutorial 6
1. Assume that a person shakes hands with another person at most once and
that a handshake between two persons is counted as one handshake.
(a) Draw a graph to show that it is possible for 7 handshakes to have
taken place among a group of 5 persons without any one having
shaken hands with the other 4.
(b) Show that if there are 8 handshakes among 5 persons, then there is
at least one person who has shaken hands with the other 4 persons.
(Hint. Prove by contradiction: what happens if each person shakes
the hands of at most three persons? Use the equation for the sum of
the degrees of the vertices of a graph.)
(c) Draw a graph to show that it is possible for 12 handshakes to have
taken place among a group of 6 persons without any one having
shaken hands with the other 5.
2. On the right is a picture of a three-
dimensional solid called a dodecahe-
dron which has 12 pentagonal faces and
20 vertices. The thick lines are those
edges visible to you while the thin lines
are those edges not visible to you. Rep-
resent each vertex of the dodecahedron
as a vertex of a graph and each side of
a pentagonal face as an edge joining the
corresponding two vertices. How many
edges does the graph have? Draw a planar
graph equivalent to this graph.

`
`
` `
`
`
` `
\
\
\
\\

-
-
-
- -
ZZ
/
/
/
//
`
`
`
` `

Z Z
/
/
/
/ /
`
`
`
``

.
.
. .
-
-
-
--
`
`
``
|
|
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||
Z
Z Z
`
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``
\
\
\
\ \
.
.
. .
3. (Icosian Game) Twenty cities are situated at the vertices of a dodecahe-
dron. Find a continuous route that travels along the edges of the dodeca-
hedron and visits each city exactly once.
(Hint. Use the planar graph obtained above.)
4. An ancient record of a long-lost city contains the following description.
The city is built on ten islands which are conncected to each other and
the mainland in the following way. The mainland is connected to exactly
ve islands by ve bridges. Four of the islands have four bridges leading
from each of them. Three of the islands have three bridges leading from
each of them. Two of the islands have two bridges leading from each of
them. One island can be reached by only one bridge.
Is this description physically possible? Give reasons for your answer.
(Hint. Assume such a layout is possible and look at the degrees of the
vertices of the appropriate graph.)
5. A complete graph with 6 vertices and 15 straight edges has its edges
coloured in one of two colours, red or blue.
(a) Take any vertex P of the graph. Explain why 3 of the edges from P
must be of the same colour.
(b) Supppose that the edges PA, PB, PC are of the same colour. Show
that either the edges of the triangle ABC are all of the same colour
or else one of the triangles PAB, PBC, PCA has edges of the same
colour.
6. Let G be the complete graph with 9 vertices and 36 vertices in the Ramsey
Board Game. Suppose that each of the edges of G is coloured with one of
two colours red or blue. A triangle of G is a triangle whose vertices are
vertices of G and is called a blue or red triangle according to whether
all its edge are coloured blue or red respectively. Prove that in any
colouring of G, there must be at least two triangles which are blue or red
triangles and which do not have any common vertices.
(Hint. Use preceding result.)
7. Which of the following graphs is planar? Give reasons for your answers.

/
/
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/
/
/
'
'
'
'
'
'
r r r r
r
r r r r
r
(a)
r
r r
r r
r
(b)
8. For each of the following labeled graphs, nd all its labeled spanning trees.
How many of these trees are inequivalent?

s s
s s
A B
C D
(a)

s s
s s
(b)

s s
s s
(c)
9. Draw all the inequivalent trees with (a) 6 vertices, (b) 7 vertices. How
many of them are there?
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