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- 2073 Magh · 4+4 marks
Draw W6, K6, Q3, K2,5 and color them
Short answer
W6: the hub gets one color, the even rim alternates two, so χ = 3. K6: all six vertices mutually adjacent, χ = 6. Q3: bipartite, color by parity of 1s, χ = 2. K2,5: one color for each part, χ = 2.
Draw neat and clean graphs of: W6 (a wheel with 6 peripheral vertices), K6 (a complete graph with 6 vertices), Q3 (a 3 dimensional hypercube) and K2,5 (complete bipartite graph). Use graph coloring technique to color each of these graphs and state their respective chromatic numbers.
Wheel W₆
W₆ (wheel with 6 peripheral vertices): a cycle C₆ on v1..v6 (the rim) plus a hub h joined to all six rim vertices (spokes). It has 7 vertices and 12 edges.
v1
/ \
v6 v2 h in the centre is joined
| h | to v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6
v5 v3
\ /
v4
Coloring: the hub is adjacent to every rim vertex, so it needs a color used nowhere else. The rim is an even cycle and needs two other colors.
| Vertex | h | v1 | v2 | v3 | v4 | v5 | v6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
At least 3 colors are needed (h, v1, v2 form a triangle) and 3 suffice. χ(W₆) = 3. (A wheel with an odd rim needs 4.)
Complete graph K₆
K₆ (complete graph on 6 vertices): 6 vertices, every pair joined, so 15 edges and every vertex has degree 5.
v1
/ \
v6 v2 hexagon v1..v6 plus all 9 diagonals:
| \ / | v1v3 v1v4 v1v5 v2v4 v2v5 v2v6
| X X | v3v5 v3v6 v4v6
v5 v3
\ /
v4
Edges: all pairs vi vj with 1 ≤ i < j ≤ 6.
Coloring: each vertex is adjacent to all five others, so six different colors are needed.
| Vertex | v1 | v2 | v3 | v4 | v5 | v6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Six colors are enough and fewer cannot work. So χ(K₆) = 6. In general χ(Kₙ) = n.
Hypercube Q₃
Q₃ (3-dimensional hypercube): the vertices are the 8 binary strings of length 3; two are adjacent when they differ in exactly one bit. It has 8 vertices and 12 edges, and is 3-regular.
e ------- f
/| /|
/ | / |
a ------- b |
| h -----|- g
| / | /
|/ |/
d ------- c
Labels: a = 000, b = 100, c = 110, d = 010, e = 001, f = 101, g = 111, h = 011. Edges: ab, bc, cd, da (front square), ef, fg, gh, he (back square), ae, bf, cg, dh.
Coloring: color each vertex by the parity of the number of 1's in its label (Q₃ is bipartite): even parity gets color 1, odd parity gets color 2.
| Vertex | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Every edge changes one bit, so it joins an even-parity vertex to an odd-parity one. So χ(Q₃) = 2.
Complete bipartite graph K₂,₅
K₂,₅ (complete bipartite graph): A = {a1, a2}, B = {b1, ..., b5}; each of a1, a2 is joined to all five of b1..b5, giving 10 edges.
a1 a2
/ / | \ \ / / | \ \ each a is joined
b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 to every b
(The same five vertices b1..b5 are shared by a1 and a2.)
Coloring: color 1 for a1, a2; color 2 for b1..b5. χ(K₂,₅) = 2.
Summary: χ(W₆) = 3, χ(K₆) = 6, χ(Q₃) = 2, χ(K₂,₅) = 2.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
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