ICS 241: Discrete Mathematics II (Spring 2015)

11.1 Introduction to Trees

A tree is a connected undirected graph with no simple circuits.

Theorem 1

An undirected graph is a tree if and only if there is a unique simple path between any two of its
vertices.

Forest

A (not-necessarily-connected) undirected graph without simple circuits is called a forest.

Rooted Trees
A rooted tree is a tree in which one vertex has been designated as the root and every edge is directed
away from the root.

Parent

Suppose that T is a rooted tree. If v is a vertex in T other than the root, the parent of v is the unique
vertex u such that there is a directed edge from u to v.

Child

If u is the parent of v, then v is called a child of u.

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ICS 241: Discrete Mathematics II (Spring 2015)

Siblings

Vertices with the same parent are called siblings.

Ancestors

The ancestors of a vertex other than the root are the vertices in the path from the root to this vertex,
excluding the vertex itself and including the root.

Descendants

The descendants of a vertex v are those vertices that have v as an ancestor.

Leaf

A vertex of a tree is called a leaf if it has no children.

Internal Vertices

Vertices that have children are called internal vertices.

Subtree

If a is a vertex in a tree, the subtree with a as its root is the subgraph of the tree consisting of a and
its descendants and all edges incident to these descendants.

m-ary Tree

A rooted tree is called an m-ary tree if every internal vertex has no more than m children. The tree
is called a full m-ary tree if every internal vertex has exactly m children.

Example of a full 3-ary tree:

Binary Tree

An m-ary tree with m = 2 is called a binary tree.

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ICS 241: Discrete Mathematics II (Spring 2015)

Ordered Root Tree

An ordered rooted tree is a rooted tree where the children of each internal vertex are ordered.

b c

d e f g

h i j k l m n o

Left and Right Child

In an ordered binary tree, the first child is called the left child and the second child is called the
right child.

Left and Right Subtree

The tree rooted at the left child is called the left subtree and the tree rooted at the right child is
called the right subtree.

Theorem 2

A tree with n vertices has n − 1 edges.

Theorem 3

A full m-ary tree with i internal vertices contains n = mi + 1 vertices.

Theorem 4

A full m-ary tree with

n−1 (m − 1)n + 1
1. n vertices has i = internal vertices and l = leaves.
m m
2. i internal vertices has n = mi + 1 vertices and l = (m − 1)i + 1 leaves.
ml − 1 l−1
3. l leaves has n = vertices and i = internal vertices.
m−1 m−1

Level

The level of a vertex v in a rooted tree is the length of the unique path from the root to this vertex.

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ICS 241: Discrete Mathematics II (Spring 2015)

Height

The height of a rooted tree is the maximum of the levels of vertices. In other words, the height of
a rooted tree is the length of the longest path from the root to any vertex.

Balanced

A rooted m-ary tree of height h is balanced if all leaves are at levels h or h − 1.

Theorem 5

There are at most mh leaves in an m-ary tree of height h.

Corollary 1

If an m-ary tree of height h has l leaves, then h ≥ dlogm le. If the m-ary tree is full and balanced,
then h = dlogm le.

11.1 pg. 775 # 1

Which of these graphs are trees?

a )

This graph is a tree because it is connected has no simple circuits.

b )

Not a tree because it is not connected.

c )

This graph is a tree because it is connected has no simple circuits.

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ICS 241: Discrete Mathematics II (Spring 2015)

d )

Not a tree because it has a simple circuit.

e )

This graph is a tree because it is connected has no simple circuits.

f )

Not a tree because it has a simple circuit.

11.1 pg. 775 # 3

Answer these questions about the rooted tree illustrated

b c d

e f g h i j k

l m n o p q r

s t

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ICS 241: Discrete Mathematics II (Spring 2015)

a) Which vertex is a root?

a is the root of the tree.

b) Which vertices are internal?

The internal vertices are a, b, c, d, f, h, j, q, t.

c) Which vertices are leaves?

The leaves are e, g, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, u.

d) Which vertices are children of j?

The children of j are q and r.

e) Which vertex is the the parent of h?

The parent of h is c.

f) Which vertices are siblings of o?

The sibling of o is p.

g) Which vertices are ancestors of m?

The ancestors of m are f, b, a.

h) Which vertices are descendants of b?

The descendants of b are e, f, l, m, n.

11.1 pg. 755 # 5

Is the rooted tree in Exercise 3 a full m-ary tree for some positive integer m?

This m-ary tree is valid for all m ≥ 3. However, the tree is not a full m-ary tree because it has
vertices that have 3, 2, or 1 children.

11.1 pg. 755 # 9

Draw the subtree of the tree in Exercise 3 that is rooted at

a) a.

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ICS 241: Discrete Mathematics II (Spring 2015)

b c d

e f g h i j k

l m n o p q r

s t

b) c.

g h

o p

c) e.

11.1 pg. 756 # 17

How many edges does a tree with 10000 vertices have?

Use theorem 2. A tree with n vertices has n − 1 edges.

10000 − 1 = 9999 edges.

11.1 pg. 756 # 19

How many edges does a full binary tree with 1000 internal vertices have?

A full binary tree has two edges for each internal vertex. So we’ll just multiply the number of
internal vertices by the number of edges.
1000 · 2 = 2000 edges

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11.1 pg. 756 # 21

Suppose 1000 people enter a chess tournament. Use a rooted tree model of the tournament to de-
termine how many games must be played to determine a champion, if a player is eliminated after
one loss and games are played until only one entrant has not lost. (Assume there are no ties.)

We can model this tournament with a full binary tree. We know we have 1000 leaves for this tree
because we have 1000 people. Each internal vertex will represent the winner of the game played
by its children. The root will be the winner of the tournament. By Theorem 4(3) with m = 2 and
l = 1000. We know that:
l−1
i=
m−1
1000 − 1
=
2−1
999
=
1
= 999
We have 999 internal vertices, so we know 999 games must be played to determine the champion.