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Section 16.2 Basics

trivial path
a path that consists of a single vertex
cycle
a closed path
proper cycle
a nontrivial cycle that is also a trail

Example 16.2.1. A nontrivial cycle that is not proper..

The cycle \(v,e,v',e,v \) in any graph \(G \) that contains distinct vertices \(v,v' \) and edge \(e = \{v,v'\} \text{.}\)
acyclic graph
contains no proper cycles
forest
synonym for acyclic graph
tree
a connected, acyclic graph

Example 16.2.4. Decision trees are trees.

In Worked ExampleΒ 15.2.5, we attempted to determine all possible trails from one node to another in a given graph. The graph in FigureΒ 15.2.6 that we used to explore possible trails in the given graph is an example of a decision tree β€” at each node we β€œbranched out” to new possibilities in continuing the trail. As the name suggested, the connected graph we ended up with is a tree.