content/blog/graphs/index.md (view raw)
1+++
2title = "Graphs"
3date = 2017-06-02
4updated = 2017-06-02
5[taxonomies]
6category = ["algos"]
7tags = ["graphs"]
8+++
9
10<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.5/MathJax.js?config=TeX-MML-AM_CHTML' async></script>
11<noscript>There are a few things which won't render unless you enable
12JavaScript. No tracking, I promise!</noscript>
13
14> Don't know English? [Read the Spanish version instead](spanish.html).
15
16 <p>Let's imagine we have 5 bus stations, which we'll denote by \(s_i\):</p>
17
18 \(\begin{bmatrix}
19 & s_1 & s_2 & s_3 & s_4 & s_5 \\
20 s_1 & & V & & & \\
21 s_2 & V & & & & V \\
22 s_3 & & & & V & \\
23 s_4 & & V & V & & \\
24 s_5 & V & & & V &
25 \end{bmatrix}\)
26
27 <p>This is known as a <i>"table of direct interconnections"</i>.</p>
28 <p>The \(V\) represent connected paths. For instance, on the first
29 row starting at \(s_1\), reaching the \(V\),
30 allows us to turn up to get to \(s_2\).</p>
31
32 <p>We can see the above table represented in a more graphical way:</p>
33 <img src="example1.svg" />
34 <p>This type of graph is called, well, a <i>graph</i>, and it's a directed
35 graph (or <i>digraph</i>), since the direction on which the arrows go does
36 matter. It's made up of vertices, joined together by edges (also known as
37 lines or directed <b>arcs</b>).</p>
38
39 <p>One can walk from a node to another through different <b>paths</b>. For
40 example, \(s_4 \rightarrow s_2 \rightarrow s_5\) is an indirect path of <b>order</b>
41 two, because we must use two edges to go from \(s_4\) to
42 \(s_5\).</p>
43
44 <p>Let's now represent its adjacency matrix called A which represents the
45 same table, but uses <mark>1</mark> instead </mark>V</mark> to represent
46 a connection:</p>
47
48 \(\begin{bmatrix}
49 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\
50 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
51 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
52 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
53 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0
54\end{bmatrix}\)
55
56 <p>This way we can see how the \(a_{2,1}\) element represents the
57 connection \(s_2 \rightarrow s_1\), and the \(a_{5,1}\) element the
58 \(s_5 \rightarrow s_1\) connection, etc.</p>
59
60 <p>In general, \(a_{i,j}\) represents a connection from
61 \(s_i \rightarrow s_j\)as long as \(a_{i,j}\geq 1\).</p>
62
63 <p>Working with matrices allows us to have a computable representation of
64 any graph, which is very useful.</p>
65
66 <hr />
67
68 <p>Graphs have a lot of interesting properties besides being representable
69 by a computer. What would happen if, for instance, we calculated
70 \(A^2\)? We obtain the following matrix:</p>
71
72 \(\begin{bmatrix}
73 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
74 1 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
75 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
76 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\
77 0 & 2 & 1 & 0 & 0
78 \end{bmatrix}\)
79
80 <p>We can interpret this as the paths of order <b>two</b>.</p>
81 <p>But what does the element \(a_{5,2}=2\) represent? It indicates
82 the amount of possible ways to go from \(s_5 \rightarrow s_i \rightarrow s_2\).</p>
83
84 <p>One can manually multiply the involved row and column to determine which
85 element is the one we need to pass through, this way we have the row
86 \([1 0 0 1 0]\) and the column \([1 0 0 1 0]\) (on
87 vertical). The elements \(s_i\geq 1\) are \(s_1\) and
88 \(s_4\). This is, we can go from \(s_5\) to
89 \(s_2\) via \(s_5 \rightarrow s_1 \rightarrow s_2\) or via
90 \(s_5 \rightarrow s_4 \rightarrow s_2\):</p>
91 <img src="example2.svg" />
92
93 <p>It's important to note that graphs to not consider self-connections, this
94 is, \(s_i \rightarrow s_i\) is not allowed; neither we work with multigraphs
95 here (those which allow multiple connections, for instance, an arbitrary
96 number \(n\) of times).</p>
97
98 \(\begin{bmatrix}
99 1 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
100 1 & 2 & \textbf{1} & 0 & 1 \\
101 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\
102 1 & 2 & 1 & 1 & 0 \\
103 2 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 2
104 \end{bmatrix}\)
105
106 <p>We can see how the first \(1\) just appeared on the element
107 \(a_{2,3}\), which means that the shortest path to it is at least
108 of order three.</mark>
109
110 <hr />
111
112 <p>A graph is said to be <b>strongly connected</b> as long as there is a
113 way to reach <i>all</i> its elements.</p>
114
115 <p>We can see all the available paths until now by simply adding up all the
116 direct and indirect ways to reach a node, so for now, we can add
117 \(A+A^2+A^3\) in such a way that:</p>
118
119 \(\begin{bmatrix}
120 2 & 2 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\
121 3 & 3 & 1 & 1 & 3 \\
122 1 & 1 & 1 & 2 & 1 \\
123 2 & 3 & 2 & 2 & 1 \\
124 3 & 2 & 1 & 2 & 2
125 \end{bmatrix}\)
126
127 <p>There isn't a connection between \(s_1\) and \(s_3\) yet.
128 If we were to calculate \(A^4\):</p>
129
130 \(\begin{bmatrix}
131 1 & 2 & 1 & & \\
132 & & & & \\
133 & & & & \\
134 & & & & \\
135 & & & &
136 \end{bmatrix}\)
137
138 <p>We don't need to calculate anymore. We now know that the graph is
139 strongly connected!</p>
140
141 <hr />
142
143 <p>Congratulations! You've completed this tiny introduction to graphs.
144 Now you can play around with them and design your own connections.</p>
145
146 <p>Hold the left mouse button on the above area and drag it down to create
147 a new node, or drag a node to this area to delete it.</p>
148
149 <p>To create new connections, hold the right mouse button on the node you
150 want to start with, and drag it to the node you want it to be connected to.</p>
151
152 <p>To delete the connections coming from a specific node, middle click it.</p>
153
154 <table><tr><td style="width:100%;">
155 <button onclick="resetConnections()">Reset connections</button>
156 <button onclick="clearNodes()">Clear all the nodes</button>
157 <br />
158 <br />
159 <label for="matrixOrder">Show matrix of order:</label>
160 <input id="matrixOrder" type="number" min="1" max="5"
161 value="1" oninput="updateOrder()">
162 <br />
163 <label for="matrixAccum">Show accumulated matrix</label>
164 <input id="matrixAccum" type="checkbox" onchange="updateOrder()">
165 <br />
166 <br />
167 <div class="matrix">
168 <table id="matrixTable"></table>
169 </div>
170 </td><td>
171 <canvas id="canvas" width="400" height="400" oncontextmenu="return false;">
172 Looks like your browser won't let you see this fancy example :(
173 </canvas>
174 <br />
175 </td></tr></table>
176
177<script src="tinyparser.js"></script>
178<script src="enhancements.js"></script>
179<script src="graphs.js"></script>