Percy John Heawood

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Percy John Heawood (1861-1955) was a British mathematician. He devoted essentially his whole working life to the four colour theorem and in 1890 he exposed a flaw in Alfred Kempe's proof, that had been considered to valid for 11 years. With the four color theorem being open again he established the five colour theorem instead. The four colour theorem itself was finally established by a computer based proof in 1976.

[edit] See also

• Heawood conjecture
• Heawood number
• Heawood graph
• four colour theorem
• five colour theorem

[edit] External links

• MacTutor biography