GRAPH COLORING

Definition 1 (Graph Coloring)

A coloring of a simple graph is the assignment of a color of each vertex of the graph so that no two
adjacent vertices are assigned the same color.

Definition 2 (Chromatic Number)

The chromatic number of a graph is the least number of colors needed for a coloring of the graph,
denoted by
.

Example:
Determine the chromatic number of the following graph:

Application of Graph Coloring (Scheduling Final Exams)

How can the final exams at a university be scheduled so that no student has two exams at the same
day? Suppose that:
i.
ii.

There are seven courses to be scheduled, denoted by 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7.

The following pairs of courses have common students:
(1,2), (1,3), (1,4), (1,7), (2,3), (2,4), (2,5), (2,7), (3,4), (3,5), (3,7), (4,5), (4,6), (5,6), (5,7), (6,7).