Show that there is no regular planar graph (all vertices degree 3) so that all regions, including the unbounded region, are hexagonal.

583 Views Asked by At

Show that there is no regular planar graph (all vertices degree 3) so that all regions, including the unbounded region, are hexagonal.

I am sure this has something to do with the fact that for planar graphs the sum of degrees of regions is twice the number of edges. Looking for a hint to push me in the right direction.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

The Euler characteristic of a planar graph is $2$. However, if every face is hexagonal and every vertex has degree $3$, $V+F-E$ cannot be $2$, because it is $ 2F+F-3F = 0$.

Explanation: there are $6$ vertices on every face and every vertex belongs to $3$ faces, hence $V=2F$. Every face has six edges and every edge belongs to two faces, hence $E=3F$.

However, we have such kind of graph embedded in a torus (courtesy of R. M.):

$\hspace{3.5cm}$enter image description here