Colorful talk this week!

Another great turn out last week! Come back this Wednesday 6:00-7:00 PM in LGRT 1634 for a talk on the Four Color Theorem by Holley Friedlander (me).

In this week’s talk I will answer the question: how many colors are needed to color a map so that no two neighboring territories have the same color? I will explore the history of the Four Color Theorem and give a proof of the simpler Five Color Theorem [Heawood 1890]. The eventual proof of the Four Color Theorem [Appel-Haken-Koch 1977] will also be discussed. Along the way I will present some basic definitions in graph theory and elementary proof techniques. Come learn about a very colorful area of mathematics!