Graph theory: seven bridges of Königsberg
Teoría de grafos: los siete puentes de Königsberg
- Date
- 1736 · confidence high
- Place
- St Petersburg, Russia
- Credited to
- Leonhard Euler
- People
- 👤 Leonhard Euler1707–1783
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
By proving that no walk crosses every bridge exactly once, Euler abstracted the problem to vertices and edges and gave the criterion of even degrees. Graph theory and topology are born.
The problem arose in Königsberg (Kaliningrad), but Euler solved it and presented it at the St Petersburg Academy.
What it led to
- graph theory
- topology
- networks and path algorithms
- Euler's polyhedron formula
Built on
- Leibniz's geometria situs
Made possible
- Euler polyhedron formula1750
- Ramsey theorem1930
- Dijkstra shortest path algorithm1956
- electrical network analysis (Kirchhoff)
- internet routing
- logistics