Postal Meter Strip Honoring the Solution of the Four Color Problem
Postal Meter Strip Honoring the Solution of the Four Color Problem
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- Wolfgang Haken and Kenneth Appel’s proof of the four color problem was one of the first theorems published that required computers in its confirmation. The Englishman Francis Guthrie had conjectured in 1852 that four colors suffice to color any map drawn on a sheet of paper in such a way that countries sharing a common border are different colors. Heinrich Heesch showed in 1969 that the conjecture could be solved by considering a set of some 8,900 configurations with boundaries of up to eighteen edges. Haken and Appel, working with computer scientist John Koch, reduced the number of configurations examined to 1,936. For each case, their program that four colors sufficed to color it. When Appel and Haken announced their result, their employer, the University of Illinois mathematics department, altered its postal meter to print "Four Colors Suffice." This is such a postal meter stamp.
- For a related computer printout, see 1999.0339.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- Postal Meter Strip
- Date made
- September 30, 1976
- maker
- Haken, Wolfgang
- University of Illinois
- place made
- United States: Illinois, Urbana
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall:.1 cm x 12.4 cm x 3.5 cm; 1/32 in x 4 7/8 in x 1 3/8 in
- ID Number
- 1999.0339.02
- accession number
- 1999.0339
- catalog number
- 1999.0339.02
- Credit Line
- Gift of Prof. Wolfgang Haken
- subject
- Mathematics
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
