[Math] Drawing a graph with only cycles of length 5 through 9.

graph theory

I'm working my way through Combinatorics and Graph Theory, 2nd Ed., which contains the following exercise:

Draw a connected graph having at most 10 vertices that has at least one cycle of each length from 5 through 9, but has no cycles of any other length.

I'm stumped as to how to even begin attempting to solve this problem, aside from drawing graphs through trial-and-error. It seems like any graph I draw with a cycle with length of 5 also contains a cycle with $len < 5$.

What is an example of such a graph? How does one approach tackling this sort of challenge?

Best Answer

Hint: Draw a cycle of length 9. Can you see how to build a 6-cycle and a 7-cycle with the extra vertex? Now remains to build the 5-cycle and the 8-cycle. You can build the 5-cycle by adding only 1 edge. I hope this can help you without giving you the solution straight away!