BPML: Combinatorics in the plane - Dr Johannes Carmesin

A Birmingham Popular Maths Lecture from Dr Johannes Carmesin.

A plane graph consists of a set of points in the two dimensional plane and some lines joining some pairs of these points in such a way that these lines do not cross. A well-known theorem in Graph Theory is that the set of points of every plane graph can be coloured with at most four colours such that adjacent points (those joined by a line) get different colours. A simple proof of this theorem has not been found yet. But can you prove that one can colour all plane graphs with 7 colours? In this talk, I will give an introduction to plane graphs, and provide an overview of various techniques, geometric as well as algebraic.

We will be running the Birmingham Popular Maths Lecture series online for this academic year.

The lectures are open to all members of public and the University. Particularly suitable for those studying mathematics at A-level but we also welcome advanced GCSE students. Please register to attend the lecture. There will be time at the end for questions.