Tutorial 9 Solutions

MATH 239 Winter 2024

Week of March 18

T-9-1. Let e be an edge in a connected graph G. Prove that e is a bridge in G if and only if e is in
every spanning tree of G.
Solution. First, assume that e = {v, w} is a bridge in a connected graph G. Arguing for a
contradiction, suppose that T is a spanning tree of G that does not contain e. Since T is a
spanning subgraph of G, both v and w are vertices of T . By Lemma 5.1.3, there is a unique
path P in T from v to w. But now C = P ∪{e} is a cycle in G that contains the edge e. Theorem
4.10.3 now implies that e is not a bridge. This contradiction shows that if e is a bridge then e
is contained in every spanning tree of G.
Conversely, assume that e is not a bridge. Then H = G \ e is still connected. By Theorem
5.2.1, the graph H has a spanning tree T . Since H is a spanning subgraph of G, this tree T is
also a spanning tree of G. Since T does not contain e, this completes the proof. □

T-9-2. A planar embedding of a graph G is called outerplanar if every vertex of G lies on the boundary
of its outer face. A graph G is outerplanar if there exists an outerplanar embedding of G.

Prove the following theorem:

Theorem 1. Let G be a graph and let G+ denote the graph obtained from G by adding a new vertex v
and edges from v to all vertices of G. Then G+ is planar if and only if G is outerplanar.

Solution. Draw some examples. If G is outerplanar, then consider the embedding with every
vertex touching the outside face. We see that an edge from a vertex on the outside face does
not need to cross any edge to get to a new vertex outside the planar embedding. Hence G+ is
planar.
In the other direction, assume that G+ is planar. We note that every vertex is reachable from
the new vertex without crossing any other edge. Hence if we remove every edge connected
to this new vertex, we see that every vertex touches the outside face. Hence the graph is outer
planar. □

T-9-3. Let G be a connected planar graph such that ever face is a triangle. Let p be the number of
vertices and q the number of edges. Show that p − 31 q = 2. Derive a similar formula if every
face is a square.

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 MATH 239 Winter 2024 Tutorial 9 Solutions

Solution. Let p be the number of vertices, q the number of edges and f the number of faces.
deg(f ) = 3f . Equivalently f = 32 q.
P
We see from the handshake lemma for faces that 2q =
By Euler’s formula we have p + f − q = 2. This gives p + 23 q − q = 2 or equivalently p − 13 q = 2
as required.
1
If every face was a square, we would have 2q = 4f or equivalently f = 2 q. This gives
p − 12 q = 2. □

Extra Practice.

EP-9-1. Let Gk be a graph with V (Gk ) = {1, 2, 3, . . . , 100}. Let (i, j) ∈ E(G) if and only if |i − j| = 1
or |i − j| = k. Show for 1 ≤ k ≤ 100 that Gk is bipartite if and only if k is odd.
Solution. Draw some examples for a smaller version, maybe {1, 2, . . . , 7}. This will help
build intuition.
If k is even then we see that 1 − 2 − 3 − · · · − (k − 1) − k − 1 is cycle of odd length. Hence Gk
cannot be bipartite.
Let O = {1, 3, 5, . . . , 99} be the set of odd numbers and E = {2, 4, 6, . . . , 100} be the set of
even numbers. We see if k is odd that there is no edge from O to O and no edge from E t E,
hence the graph is bipartite. □