Planarity and Euler’s Formula

Planarity
A puzzle that was posed some time ago goes something like this: Three utility
companies each need to run pipes to the three houses. Can they do so without
crossing over each other’s pipes at any point? The puzzle is illustrated in figure 6.15.
go ahead and try to draw pipes connecting each utility company to each house
without letting any pipes cross over each other.

House X House Y House Z

One way to approach the puzzle is to express the situation in terms of a graph. Each
of the houses and utility companies will be represented by a vertex, and we will draw
an edge between two vertices if a pipe needs to run from one building to the other.
If we were not worried about pipes crossing, we could easily draw a solution as in
figure 6.16.

To solve the puzzle, we need to draw an equivalent graph in which no edges

cross over each other.; if this is possible, the graph is called planar graph.
 Planar Graph

A planar graph is a graph that can be drawn so that no edges intersect each other
(except at vertices).

If the graph is drawn in such a way that we have a planar drawing of the graph.

Question: Is this a planar drawing of graph? Is the graph planar?

ANSWER: The drawing is not planar because

two edges cross. The graph is planar because we can

make an equivalent planar drawing of it

as shown at the right

Identity on a Planar Graph

Show that the graph below is planar.

Solution

As given, the graph has several intersecting edges. However, we can draw the graph
in an equivalent form in which no edges touch except at vertices by red edges shown
below. To verify that the second graph is equivalent to the first, we cdan label the
vertices and check that the edges join the same vertices in each graph. Because the
given graph is equivalent to a graph whose edges do not intersect, the graph is
planar.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS1 Show that the following graph is planar.

To see that the graph in figure 6.16 representing the puzzle of connecting utilities is
not planar, note that the graph is Hamiltonian, and one Hamiltonian circuit is A-X-B-
Y-C-A-Z. if we redraw the graph so that this circuit is drawn in a loop (see figure 6.17
on the next page), we then need to add the edges AY, BZ, and CX. All three of these
edges connect opposite vertices. We can draw only one of these edges inside the
loop; otherwise two edges would cross. This means that the other two edges must
be drawn outside the loop, but as you can see in figure 6.18 on the next page, those
two edges would then have to cross. Thus the graph in figure 6.16, which we will
refer to as the Utilities graph, is not planar, and so that utilities puzzle is not solvable.

One strategy we can use to show that a graph is not planar is to find a subgraph, a
graph whose edges and vertices come from the given graph, that is not planar. The
utilities Graph ion figure 6.16 is a common subgraph to watch for. Another graph tht
is not planar is the complete graph with five vertices, denoted K5 shown in figure
6.19. (See Exercise 29).

Subgraph Theorem
If a graph G has a subgraph that is not planar, then G is also not planar. In
particular, if G contains the utilities Graph or K as a subgraph, G is not planar.

EXAMPLE 2 IDENTITY A NONPLANAR GRAPH

Show that the following graph is planar.

Solution

In figure below, we have highlighted edges connecting the top six vertices. If we
consider the highlighted edges and attached vertices as a subgraph, we can verify
that the subgraph is the Utilities graph ( The graph is slightly distorted compared
with the version shown in figure 6.16, but it is equivalent.) by the preceding
theorem, we know that the graph is not planar.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS2 Show that the following graph is not planar.
We can expand this strategy by considering contractions of a subgraph. A contraction
of a graph is formed by “shrinking” an edge until the two vertices it connects come
together and blend into one. If, in the process, the graph is left with any multiple
edges, we merge them into one. The process is illustrated below.

EXAMPLE 3 CONTRACTING GRAPH

Show that the first graph below can be contracted to the second graph.

Solution

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS 3 Show that the first graph below can be contracted to
the second graph
If we consider contractions, it turns out the utilities graph K serve as building blocks
for nonplanar graphs. In fact, it was proved in 1930 that any nonplanar graph will
always have a subgraph that is the utilities K , or a subgraph that can be contracted
to the utilities Graph or K . we can then expand our strategy, as given by the
following theorem.

Nonplanar Graph Theorem

A graph is nonplanar if and only if it has the Utilities Graph or K as a subgraph, or
it has a subgraph that can be contracted to the Utilities Graph or K .
This gives us a definite test that will determine whether or not a graph can be drawn
in such a way as to avoid crossing edges, (Note that the theorem includes the case in
which the entire graph can be contracted to the Utilities Graph or K as we can
consider the graph a subgraph of itself.)

EXAMPLE 4 Identify a Nonplanar Graph

Show that the graph below is not planar.

Solution

Note that the graph looks similar to K . in fact, we can contract some edges and make
the graph look like K ,. Choose a pair of adjacent outside edges and contract one of
them, as shown in the figure below.
If we similarly contract the four edges colored green in the preceding figure, we
arrive at the graph K .

We are able to contractor graph to K , so by the nonplanar graph theorem, the given
graph is not planar.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS4 Show that the graph below is not planar.

Planar Graph on Circuit Boards

Trying to draw a graph as a planar drawing has many practical applications. For
instance, the design of circuit boards used in computers and other electronic
components depends on wires connecting different components without touching
each other elsewhere. Circuit boards can be very complex, but in effect they require
that collections of wires be arrange in a planar drawing of a planar graph. If this is
possible, special connections can be installed that allow one wire to “jump” over
another without touching. Or both sides of the board can be used, or sometimes
more than one board is used and the board are then connected by wires. In effect,
the graph is spread out among different surfaces.

Euler’s Formula

Euler noticed a connection between various features of a planar graphs. In tradition

to edges and vertices, he looked at faces of graph. In a planar drawing of a graph, the
edges divide the graph into different regions called faces. The region surrounding
the graph or the exterior, is also considered a face, called the infinite face. (See the
figure at the left) The following relationship, called Euler’s formula, is always true.

EXAMPLE 5 Verify Euler’s Formula in a Graph

Count the number of edges, vertices, and faces in the planar graph below, and then
verify Euler’s formula.

Solution

There are seven edges, five vertices, and four faces (counting the infinite face) in the
graph. Thus v + f = 5 + 4 = 9 and e + 2 = 7 +2 = 9, so v + f = e + 2, as Euler’s Formula
predicts.
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS 5 Verify Euler’s formula for the planar graph below.

EXCURSION

The Five Regular Convex Polyhedra

A regular polyhedron is a three-dimensional object in which all faces are identical.

Specifically, each face is regular polygon (meaning that each edge has the same
length and each angle has the same measure). In tradition, the same number of faces
must meet at each vertex, or corner, of the object. Here we will discuss convex
polyhedra, which means that any line joining one vertex to another is entirely
contained within the object.

(In other words, there are no indentations.)

It was provided long ago that only five objects fit this description the tretahedron,
the cube, the octahedron, the dodecahedron. (See figure 6.20 on the next page).