Bridges of Königsberg/Historical Note

Historical Note on Bridges of Königsberg

The solution of the Bridges of Königsberg problem, in a rather different form, was first given by Leonhard Euler in his $1736$ paper Solutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis.

This is widely considered as the first ever paper in the field of graph theory.


Mathematically-minded tourists are to be aware that the City of Königsberg is currently a part of Russia, and goes by the name of Kaliningrad.

It is very much not the same as it was. There are now only five bridges, and their configuration corresponds to a graph which is now semi-Eulerian.

Like many places that were taken over by Russia in the 20th century, it has been allowed to deteriorate.


Sources

  • 1972: George F. Simmons: Differential Equations ... (previous) ... (next): $\S 3$: Appendix $\text A$: Euler
  • 1977: Gary Chartrand: Introductory Graph Theory ... (previous) ... (next): $\S 3.1$: The Königsberg Bridge Problem: An Introduction to Eulerian Graphs: Theorem $3.1$
  • 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.21$: Euler ($\text {1707}$ – $\text {1783}$)
  • 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): The Bridges of Königsberg: $133$
  • 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Königsberg bridge problem
  • 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Königsberg bridge problem
  • 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): bridges of Königsberg
  • 2021: Richard Earl and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): bridges of Königsberg
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