Tutorial Sheet : 7

Course Code : BMAT205L

Course Title : Discrete Mathematics and Graph Theory

Module 7: Graph Coloring, Covering, Partitioning

EASY:

1. Find the chromatic number of the following graphs:

a)

b)

2. Find the chromatic polynomial of the following graphs:

a)

b)

3. Is the graph given below is bipartite graph? If so, represent the graph in a 2-colourable way.

4. Find a matching and an edge cover for the following graph:

5. Find a maximum matching and minimum vertex cover for the following graph:
AVERAGE:
For questions 1 to 5, find the chromatic number and chromatic partition of the given graphs.

1. a)

b)

c)

Solution: Hint: Find the minimum number of colors used to color the vertices of the graph
and write the partitioning based on the coloring.
a) 3, b) 3, c) 3

2. a)

b)

c)

Solution: a) 3, b) 4, c) 3

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3. a)

b)

c)

Solution: a) 3, b) 3, c) 3

4. a)

b)

c)

Solution: a) 3, b) 3, c) 3

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5. a)

b)

c)

Solution: a) 3, b) 2, c) 3

6. a)

b)

c)

Solution: a) 2, b) 7, c) 4

7. Find the chromatic polynomial of the following graphs:

a)

b)

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 HARD:

1. Eight students from a university denoted as S = { s 1 , s 2 , s 3 , · · · , s 8 } are chosen form seven com-
mittees of three people each to work on a series of campus initiatives. The committees are
denoted by S 1 = { s 1 , s 2 , s 3 }, S 2 = { s 2 , s 3 , s 4 }, S 3 = { s 4 , s 5 , s 6 }, S 4 = { s 5 , s 6 , s 7 }, S 5 = { s 1 , s 7 , s 8 }, S 6 =
{ s 1 , s 4 , s 7 }, S 7 = { s 2 , s 6 , s 8 } If each committee must meet during one of the time periods 9-10 am,
10-11 am, 11-12 pm, and 12-1 pm, what is the minimum number of time periods required for all
seven committees to meet, assuming no student can be in two meetings at the same time?

Solution: Try to represent the problem as a graph, where each student is a node and each
committee is a set of three students forming an edge. The problem is to find the minimum
number of time slots such that no student is in two meetings at the same time. Look for com-
mittees that share students and assign different time slots to those overlapping committees.

2. Four students ‘Emma, Jack, Olivia and Noah’ have applied to four universities such as Yale,
Princeton, Columbia and Brown to do their master degree program. Both the students and the
universities have ranked each other based on their preference.
Student Preferences:
Emma: Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Brown
Jack: Princeton, Brown, Yale, Columbia
Olivia: Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia
Noah: Brown, Columbia, Yale, Princeton
University Preference:
Yale: Olivia, Noah, Emma, Jack
Princeton: Jack, Olivia, Noah, Emma
Columbia: Emma, Olivia, Jack, Noah
Brown: Noah, Jack, Emma, Olivia
Model this scenario as a graph and find two assignments of students to universities.

Solution: Start by modelling the problem as a bipartite graph, where one set of nodes rep-
resents the students and the other set represents the universities. Draw edges between
students and universities based on their preferences. Find the assignments, for each stu-
dent to a university, ensuring that no two students are assigned to the same universities.

3. Suppose five players—Arjun, Lakshmi, Vikram, Priya, and Karthik—are competing in a mul-
tiplayer Kabbadi game. Each player must take on one of three roles: Raider, Defender, or All-
Rounder. Each player is skilled in one or more roles:
Arjun can be a Raider, Defender, or All-Rounder.
Lakshmi can be a Raider or All-Rounder.
Vikram can be a Defender or All-Rounder.
Priya can be a Raider or Defender.
Karthik can be a Raider, Defender, or All-Rounder.

i) Model the skills of these players through a graph.

ii) Find an assignment such that each player is assigned one unique role.
iii) Find a matching for the graph obtained in (i).

4. In a large park divided into sections for a festival, the sections are named as follows: Section A
(Food Stalls), Section B (Games), Section C (Music), and Section D (Art Displays). The sections

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 are arranged such that Section A is adjacent to Section B and Section C, Section B is adjacent
to Section A and Section D, Section C is adjacent to Section A and Section D, and Section D
is adjacent to Section B and Section C. If the organizers manage to color these sections using a
specific number of colors without any adjacent sections sharing the same color, what is the name
of the famous theorem that guarantees this can be done?

5. In a city represented as a graph, intersections are nodes and roads connecting them are edges.
The city has the following intersections: A (Central Park), B (Library), C (Museum), D (City
Hall), and E (Art Gallery). The roads are laid out such that A connects to B, C, and D; B
connects to A and E; C connects to A and D; D connects to A and C; and E connects to B. If the
city planners want to ensure that no two adjacent intersections share the same color when they
plan a colorful event, how many different ways can they color the intersections using different
colors? Additionally, what is the minimum number of colors needed to achieve this?

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