Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-probability-statistics-and-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2007/r/2/ii/solution
Past exam of the Probability, statistics and options II course of the University of Oxford 2007 R 2 ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The Petersen graph has ten vertices, fifteen edges, and girth five. One way to verify the girth is its description by the two-element subsets of a five-element set, with adjacency meaning disjointness. A triangle would require three pairwise disjoint two-element subsets, which is impossible. Two distinct vertices have at most one common neighbor: the only possible common neighbor is a two-element subset of the complement of their union. Therefore a four-cycle is impossible. A five-cycle exists in its standard pentagon drawing.
If it were a planar graph, part (i) would give , a contradiction. Thus the Petersen graph is nonplanar. The held source has blank space where its drawing is mentioned; the named graph determines this argument without that missing illustration.
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