Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!apple!motcsd!hpda!hpcupt1!hpindwa!chuckh
From: chuckh@hpindwa.HP.COM (Chuck Hacala)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Re: Clicking on Irregular Shapes (and the four color problem)
Message-ID: <36590001@hpindwa.HP.COM>
Date: 7 Jul 89 00:25:12 GMT
References: <8325@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Cupertino CA
Lines: 13

>                  ...  However, it really isn't very useful for the problem
> at hand.  Most geographical maps are *not* maps in the mathematical sense.
> For instance, you can't color a map of the US with four colors.
>
> -Dan Riley (riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu, cornell!batcomputer!riley)
> -Wilson Lab, Cornell U.

Why not?  I'm sure I've seen maps of the US with only four colors.  What makes
a US map not a map in the mathematical sense?  The four-color theorem has
always been one of my favorites, and it required the use of a computer to 
prove it.  I believe they reduced the theorem down to a finite, but large,
number of cases which were then checked individually by a computer.  Perhaps it
was even an Amiga!  :-)