The Seven Bridges of Königsberg/Section 2
The problem, which I understand is quite well known, is stated as follows: In the town of Königsberg in Prussia there is an island A, called "Kneiphof," with the two branches of the river (Pregel) flowing around it, as shown in Figure 1. There are seven bridges, a, b, c, d, e, f and g, crossing the two branches. The question is whether a person can plan a walk in such a way that he will cross each of these bridges once but not more than once. I was told that while some denied the possibility of doing this and others were in doubt, there were none who maintained that it was actually possible. On the basis of the above I formulated the following very general problem for myself: Given any configuration of the river and the branches into which it may divide, as well as any number of bridges, to determine whether or not it is possible to cross each bridge exactly once.