content/blog/graphs/index.md (view raw)
1+++
2title = "Graphs"
3date = 2017-06-02
4updated = 2017-06-02
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6
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10
11> Don't know English? [Read the Spanish version instead](spanish.html).
12
13 <p>Let's imagine we have 5 bus stations, which we'll denote by \(s_i\):</p>
14
15 \(\begin{bmatrix}
16 & s_1 & s_2 & s_3 & s_4 & s_5 \\
17 s_1 & & V & & & \\
18 s_2 & V & & & & V \\
19 s_3 & & & & V & \\
20 s_4 & & V & V & & \\
21 s_5 & V & & & V &
22 \end{bmatrix}\)
23
24 <p>This is known as a <i>"table of direct interconnections"</i>.</p>
25 <p>The \(V\) represent connected paths. For instance, on the first
26 row starting at \(s_1\), reaching the \(V\),
27 allows us to turn up to get to \(s_2\).</p>
28
29 <p>We can see the above table represented in a more graphical way:</p>
30 <img src="example1.svg" />
31 <p>This type of graph is called, well, a <i>graph</i>, and it's a directed
32 graph (or <i>digraph</i>), since the direction on which the arrows go does
33 matter. It's made up of vertices, joined together by edges (also known as
34 lines or directed <b>arcs</b>).</p>
35
36 <p>One can walk from a node to another through different <b>paths</b>. For
37 example, \(s_4 \rightarrow s_2 \rightarrow s_5\) is an indirect path of <b>order</b>
38 two, because we must use two edges to go from \(s_4\) to
39 \(s_5\).</p>
40
41 <p>Let's now represent its adjacency matrix called A which represents the
42 same table, but uses <mark>1</mark> instead </mark>V</mark> to represent
43 a connection:</p>
44
45 \(\begin{bmatrix}
46 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\
47 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
48 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
49 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
50 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0
51\end{bmatrix}\)
52
53 <p>This way we can see how the \(a_{2,1}\) element represents the
54 connection \(s_2 \rightarrow s_1\), and the \(a_{5,1}\) element the
55 \(s_5 \rightarrow s_1\) connection, etc.</p>
56
57 <p>In general, \(a_{i,j}\) represents a connection from
58 \(s_i \rightarrow s_j\)as long as \(a_{i,j}\geq 1\).</p>
59
60 <p>Working with matrices allows us to have a computable representation of
61 any graph, which is very useful.</p>
62
63 <hr />
64
65 <p>Graphs have a lot of interesting properties besides being representable
66 by a computer. What would happen if, for instance, we calculated
67 \(A^2\)? We obtain the following matrix:</p>
68
69 \(\begin{bmatrix}
70 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
71 1 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
72 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
73 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\
74 0 & 2 & 1 & 0 & 0
75 \end{bmatrix}\)
76
77 <p>We can interpret this as the paths of order <b>two</b>.</p>
78 <p>But what does the element \(a_{5,2}=2\) represent? It indicates
79 the amount of possible ways to go from \(s_5 \rightarrow s_i \rightarrow s_2\).</p>
80
81 <p>One can manually multiply the involved row and column to determine which
82 element is the one we need to pass through, this way we have the row
83 \([1 0 0 1 0]\) and the column \([1 0 0 1 0]\) (on
84 vertical). The elements \(s_i\geq 1\) are \(s_1\) and
85 \(s_4\). This is, we can go from \(s_5\) to
86 \(s_2\) via \(s_5 \rightarrow s_1 \rightarrow s_2\) or via
87 \(s_5 \rightarrow s_4 \rightarrow s_2\):</p>
88 <img src="example2.svg" />
89
90 <p>It's important to note that graphs to not consider self-connections, this
91 is, \(s_i \rightarrow s_i\) is not allowed; neither we work with multigraphs
92 here (those which allow multiple connections, for instance, an arbitrary
93 number \(n\) of times).</p>
94
95 \(\begin{bmatrix}
96 1 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
97 1 & 2 & \textbf{1} & 0 & 1 \\
98 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\
99 1 & 2 & 1 & 1 & 0 \\
100 2 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 2
101 \end{bmatrix}\)
102
103 <p>We can see how the first \(1\) just appeared on the element
104 \(a_{2,3}\), which means that the shortest path to it is at least
105 of order three.</mark>
106
107 <hr />
108
109 <p>A graph is said to be <b>strongly connected</b> as long as there is a
110 way to reach <i>all</i> its elements.</p>
111
112 <p>We can see all the available paths until now by simply adding up all the
113 direct and indirect ways to reach a node, so for now, we can add
114 \(A+A^2+A^3\) in such a way that:</p>
115
116 \(\begin{bmatrix}
117 2 & 2 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\
118 3 & 3 & 1 & 1 & 3 \\
119 1 & 1 & 1 & 2 & 1 \\
120 2 & 3 & 2 & 2 & 1 \\
121 3 & 2 & 1 & 2 & 2
122 \end{bmatrix}\)
123
124 <p>There isn't a connection between \(s_1\) and \(s_3\) yet.
125 If we were to calculate \(A^4\):</p>
126
127 \(\begin{bmatrix}
128 1 & 2 & 1 & & \\
129 & & & & \\
130 & & & & \\
131 & & & & \\
132 & & & &
133 \end{bmatrix}\)
134
135 <p>We don't need to calculate anymore. We now know that the graph is
136 strongly connected!</p>
137
138 <hr />
139
140 <p>Congratulations! You've completed this tiny introduction to graphs.
141 Now you can play around with them and design your own connections.</p>
142
143 <p>Hold the left mouse button on the above area and drag it down to create
144 a new node, or drag a node to this area to delete it.</p>
145
146 <p>To create new connections, hold the right mouse button on the node you
147 want to start with, and drag it to the node you want it to be connected to.</p>
148
149 <p>To delete the connections coming from a specific node, middle click it.</p>
150
151 <table><tr><td style="width:100%;">
152 <button onclick="resetConnections()">Reset connections</button>
153 <button onclick="clearNodes()">Clear all the nodes</button>
154 <br />
155 <br />
156 <label for="matrixOrder">Show matrix of order:</label>
157 <input id="matrixOrder" type="number" min="1" max="5"
158 value="1" oninput="updateOrder()">
159 <br />
160 <label for="matrixAccum">Show accumulated matrix</label>
161 <input id="matrixAccum" type="checkbox" onchange="updateOrder()">
162 <br />
163 <br />
164 <div class="matrix">
165 <table id="matrixTable"></table>
166 </div>
167 </td><td>
168 <canvas id="canvas" width="400" height="400" oncontextmenu="return false;">
169 Looks like your browser won't let you see this fancy example :(
170 </canvas>
171 <br />
172 </td></tr></table>
173
174<script src="tinyparser.js"></script>
175<script src="enhancements.js"></script>
176<script src="graphs.js"></script>