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.
This new edition features many color illustrations. It also
includes a new foreword by Ian Stewart on the importance of the map
problem and how it was solved.
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