Show the 1/a+3/b>1 for this planar graph.

vballa15ei

vballa15ei

Answered question

2022-09-06

Show the 1 a + 3 b > 1 for this planar graph.
The connected planar graph, G satisfies the (1) ~ (3).
(1) The number of the vertex of the G is n.
(2) The degree of all the vertices are 4.
(3) Each vertex of G lies on exactly one face of degree a and exactly three faces of degree b (Here the d(f) is a degree of the face and a < b)
Show the 1 a + 3 b > 1
In the solution it claimed like the below.
First, 1 a + 3 b > 1
The number of the faces whose degree is the a ; n a (*)
The number of the faces whose degree is the b ; 3 n b (**)
Hence, v e + f = n 2 n + ( n a + 3 n b ) = 2. From this it deducted the results 1 a + 3 b > 1.
But My question is why are the (*) and (**) hold? Is there any particular reason for claiming those?

Answer & Explanation

Mekhi Parker

Mekhi Parker

Beginner2022-09-07Added 18 answers

Step 1
This is a standard argument that shows up in many places, so people get very sloppy about expressing it.
Here is a very formal version. Let A be the set of all pairs (f,v) where f is a face of degree a and v is a vertex of that face. Then:
- | A | = n, because each of the n vertices is part of exactly one such pair, by condition (3).If there are k faces of degree a, then | A | = a k, because each of the faces of degree a is part of exactly a such pairs. (Any vertex on any such face gives us a pair.)
Therefore a k = | A | = n, so k = n a .
Step 2
We can proceed similarly if we define B to be the set of all pairs (f,v) where f is a face of degree b and v is a vertex of that face. The only difference is that by condition (3), | B | = 3 n: for every vertex v, there are 3 pairs (f,v) where f has degree b and v lies on f. So we will get 3 n b such faces instead of n b .

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