Four Colors Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved

Wilson, Robin

ISBN 10: 0691115338 / ISBN 13: 9780691115337

Published by Princeton University Press, 2003

About this Item

## AS NEW book is clean, crisp, unclipped and unmarked. First U. S. Edition. First printing. Full number line. Dust jacket is As New. Illustrated with drawings and photographs. Green cloth covers with gilt lettering on spine. No marks in or on book. NOT A REMAINDER. Not ex library. 262 pages. Dust jacket protected in a new crystal clear MYLAR cover. Bubble wrapped and custom boxed for standard shipping. Appears brand new. As New First Edition.

Seller Inventory # 000976

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Four Colors Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691115338
• ISBN 13: 9780691115337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science, Mathematics

About this title

Synopsis

On October 23, 1852, Professor Augustus De Morgan wrote a letter to a colleague, unaware that he was launching one of the most famous mathematical conundrums in history--one that would confound thousands of puzzlers for more than a century. This is the amazing story of how the "map problem" was solved.


The problem posed in the letter came from a former student: What is the least possible number of colors needed to fill in any map (real or invented) so that neighboring counties are always colored differently? This deceptively simple question was of minimal interest to cartographers, who saw little need to limit how many colors they used. But the problem set off a frenzy among professional mathematicians and amateur problem solvers, among them Lewis Carroll, an astronomer, a botanist, an obsessive golfer, the Bishop of London, a man who set his watch only once a year, a California traffic cop, and a bridegroom who spent his honeymoon coloring maps. In their pursuit of the solution, mathematicians painted maps on doughnuts and horseshoes and played with patterned soccer balls and the great rhombicuboctahedron.


It would be more than one hundred years (and countless colored maps) later before the result was finally established. Even then, difficult questions remained, and the intricate solution--which involved no fewer than 1,200 hours of computer time--was greeted with as much dismay as enthusiasm.


Providing a clear and elegant explanation of the problem and the proof, Robin Wilson tells how a seemingly innocuous question baffled great minds and stimulated exciting mathematics with far-flung applications. This is the entertaining story of those who failed to prove, and those who ultimately did prove, that four colors do indeed suffice to color any map.

About the Author

Robin Wilson is Head of the Pure Mathematics Department at the Open University and Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University. He is Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, and is a frequent visitor to Colorado College. He has written and edited about 25 books on topics ranging from graph theory via philately, to the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, to the history of mathematics.