Leonhard Euler
- Recognize Leonhard Euler as the father of Graph Theory.
The great mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) is the father of Graph Theory. He became interested in a problem around 1735 and published a solution in 1741.
Euler's solution opened up an entirely new branch of mathematics, now known as Graph Theory.
Euler's great intuition in modeling the problem he was trying to solve was that he recognized the physical arrangement of the objects does not matter in modeling his problem, only the relationships (connections) mattered. And that’s what a graph is! It does not matter where the vertices are located or what the edges are shaped like. All that matters is the connections made by the edges, not the particular geometry depicted.
These five figures (above) all represent the same graph!
I encourage you to read more on the story of how Euler discovered Graphs: Königsberg: Seven Small Bridges, One Giant Graph Problem.
Resources
- A Gentle Introduction To Graph Theory.
- Wikipedia's entry on Graph Theory.
- Discrete Mathematics: An Open Introduction, 3rd edition. Chapter 4 Graph Theory.