This booklet presents the key elements of graph theory, graph algorithms, and real-world applications of graphs simply and concisely. The intended audience is people wanting a basic introduction to the topic, one that covers a lot of ground but does not go into formal detail. The reader completely new to this topic will have learnt a lot about graphs by the time (s)he has finished reading this short booklet, just a handful of pages really.
This booklet covers graphs of various types (undirected, directed, and weighted), defines key concepts (e.g., paths, cycles, matchings,cliques, isomorphism, …), states key theorems on graphs in plain-speak, defines fundamental computational algorithms on graphs, describes fundamental algorithms on graphs, and finally covers some important real-world applications.
There are no illustrations in this booklet. The reader may wish to read this booklet with pencil-and-paper handy and draw pictures as found useful. The author expects that the act of drawing pictures while reading the textual descriptions of key concepts can aid not only understanding but retention. (Of course, the real reason why pictures are excluded from this booklet is because preparing them would take considerable time, and the author has chosen to use the saved time to present more material.)
This booklet covers graphs of various types (undirected, directed, and weighted), defines key concepts (e.g., paths, cycles, matchings,cliques, isomorphism, …), states key theorems on graphs in plain-speak, defines fundamental computational algorithms on graphs, describes fundamental algorithms on graphs, and finally covers some important real-world applications.
There are no illustrations in this booklet. The reader may wish to read this booklet with pencil-and-paper handy and draw pictures as found useful. The author expects that the act of drawing pictures while reading the textual descriptions of key concepts can aid not only understanding but retention. (Of course, the real reason why pictures are excluded from this booklet is because preparing them would take considerable time, and the author has chosen to use the saved time to present more material.)
