A First Look
Try moving the cursor over the five-sided graph!
The two versions of the same graph were created by moving only one
vertex. Let's now take a look at another collection of graphs.
These graphs may look different, but in fact they are different
representations of the same graph, known as the Peterson Graph,
named after the mathematician, Julius Petersen. The five-sided
graph is also a version of the Petersen Graph. You can make
any of the above graphs look like any other simply by moving
vertices and edges into different positions. You do not have
to cut or add any vertices or edges in order to from change one
graph to another.
Informally, two graphs are isomorphic if you
can redraw one (by moving vertices, warping edges, or both) so that it is
identical to the other.
Copyright
2000
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. All Rights Reserved.