Schaum's Outline of Graph Theory: Including Hundreds of Solved Problems [Paperback]

V. Balakrishnan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0070054894 | ISBN-13: 978-0070054899 | Publication Date: February 1, 1997 | Edition: 1

Confusing Textbooks? Missed Lectures? Not Enough Time?

Fortunately for you, there's Schaum's Outlines. More than 40 million students have trusted Schaum's to help them succeed in the classroom and on exams. Schaum's is the key to faster learning and higher grades in every subject. Each Outline presents all the essential course information in an easy-to-follow, topic-by-topic format. You also get hundreds of examples, solved problems, and practice exercises to test your skills.

This Schaum's Outline gives you

• Practice problems with full explanations that reinforce knowledge
• Coverage of the most up-to-date developments in your course field
• In-depth review of practices and applications

Fully compatible with your classroom text, Schaum's highlights all the important facts you need to know. Use Schaum's to shorten your study time-and get your best test scores!

Schaum's Outlines-Problem Solved.

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About the Author

McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (February 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070054894
• ISBN-13: 978-0070054899
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is $$$ for a reason, January 12, 2003

By 

James (Lafayette, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Graph Theory: Including Hundreds of Solved Problems (Paperback)

This book was an absolute hell to contend with. I've taken two courses in Graph Theory, using Robin J. Wilson's Introduction to Graph Theory and this cheap broadsheet, respectively. Wilson's book is the one to use! It's extremely well-written, even fun to read--the reviews on Amazon will bear that out.

In the second graph theory course that I took (to refresh and refine my understanding), the professor chose the Schaum text solely for its low cost--he thought he was doing the students a service. Hardly.

No thought whatsoever has been put into the readability of this book. The tiny dark-grey font on light-grey paper is a simple enough design flub that makes reading past even two or three pages at a time almost unbearable. Defining terms is seen as a chore to be compacted--a single page at the beginning of each chapter might try to define 10-15 terms, just to get them out of the way. It becomes a mess of bold print that the reader is forced to continually return to because the definitions come with no context nor examples by which to remember them. In the end, the reader realizes that 2/3 of the book is just list after list of badly-worded questions following under-scripted lessons.

Look, it's not even worth writing any more about, the text frustrates me so much. There's only two other reviews on this page, and I'd place money on them being written by the author himself. Save yourself the $$$ and the hassle, and just go buy Wilson's book. Trust me.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not up to the standard of most Schaum's outlines, December 25, 2005

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Graph Theory: Including Hundreds of Solved Problems (Paperback)

I have bought and used many Schaum's outlines on various subjects in math and science, and I would say that this outline on graph theory is one of the worst. Most Schaum's outlines give you the theory in small doses, with plenty of diagrams to explain the concepts. This outline reads more like one of the textbooks on the subject, however. Theorems and their illustrations are poorly presented, and the author could not have made the subject matter drier and more unappealing if he had tried. You might be able to get something out of it if you are a student of pure mathematics, but you will definitely be disappointed in this book if you are a computer science student. If you are already using a bad textbook for a class in graph theory, this book will only add to your collection of bad unreadable texts on the subject. For computer science students, I suggest that you check out the chapters on graph algorithms in Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al. That book has pseudocode, explanations, and diagrams to help you work out implementations of various graphing algorithms.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Introduction to Graph Theory, July 16, 2010

By 

raymond sepeta - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Graph Theory: Including Hundreds of Solved Problems (Paperback)

I think the Schaum's Outline, Graph Theory, by V.K. Balakrishanan is a wonderful introduction to graph theory. I decided to write this review after reading some negative reviews of this book. I'm trained in mathematics so I understand that theorems and proofs must be studied carefully and thoughtfully before they make sense. But if one takes the necessary time with this book he or she will come away with a good grasp of the fundamentals of graph theory. Such major topics as connectivity, Hamiltonian graphs, trees, network flows, matching and factors, graph embeddings, and graph coloring are thoroughly covered with carefully worked out problems and proofs. In the chapter on Hamiltonian graphs, for example, we learn about the sequence of theorems by Dirac, Ore, Posa, Bondy, and Chvatal - each one implying its predecessor. The Kruskal and Prim algorithms are covered in the chapter on trees and there is even a mention of matroids here. The max-flow-min-cut theorem by Ford and Fulkerson is derived in the chapter on network flows and from this Menger's theorem is deduced. Tutte's famous theorem on matchings in general graphs is covered in the chapter on matching and factors. The beautiful proof alone by Lovasz of Tutte's theorem is worth the price of the book. Important theorems by Whitney, Konig, Hall, and Dilworth are all here. The chapter on graph coloring has the theorems of Brooks, Vizing, and Heawood, and even a section on reducible graphs and unavoidable sets (which provides the basis for the proof of the Four Color Theorem) What's missing? This book was published in 1997 so there is no mention of the Graph Minor Theorem. But if a student were to master the material in the Schaum's Outline, Graph Theory, he or she would be ready to tackle the Graph Minor Theorem.