Abstract
SINCE the publication in the American Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. ii. part 3, of the solution of this problem obtained by me, and referred to in NATURE, vol. xx. p. 275, I have succeeded in obtaining the following simple solution in which mathematical formulæ are conspicuous by their absence. It may be premised that the problem is to show how the districts of a map may be coloured with four colours, so that no two districts which have a common boundary or boundaries shall be of the same colour. The object of this colouring being to make the division of the map into districts clear without reference to boundary lines, which may be confused with rivers, &c., it is obvious that nothing will be lost if districts which are remote from each other, or touch only at detached points, are coloured the same colour.
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KEMPE, A. How to Colour a Map with Four Colours . Nature 21, 399–400 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021399a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021399a0