Euler paths and circuits

Origin of Graph Theory

In the 1700's the townspeople of old Knigsberg, East Prussia, wondered

if was possible to take a walk around their town in such a way as to cross
each of the seven bridges exactly once.

The great mathematicianbegan by pointing out that the shapes and

sizes of the land masses and bridges did not matter. This simple idea
began the study of graph theory!

Euler paths

In modern language we now restate the Knigsberg question as: "is

there apath which traverses every edge in this graph exactly once?"
Such a path is called anEuler path.

Euler answered the Knigsberg question in his 1736article:"The

solution of a problem relating to the geometry of position."

Two theorems

A connected graph has an Euler path (which is not a circuit) if and only
if it has exactlytwovertices withodddegree.

A connected graph has an Euler circuit if and only ifeveryvertex

hasevendegree.

Quiz 1

This graph has

(a) an Eulerian path

(b) an Eulerian circuit

(c) both or neither

Quiz 2

This graph has

(a) an Eulerian path

(b) an Eulerian circuit

(c) both or neither

Quiz 3

This graph has

(a) an Eulerian path

(b) an Eulerian circuit

(c) both or neither