Proposition

Let be planar. Then .

Proof

The average degree of is Since the average degree is at most So minimal degree is at most

Proposition

Let be planar. Then admits a colouring.

Proof

Proof by induction. Let be the vertex of minimum degree in Then is still planar so has a colouring. Also is connected to at most vertices in so we can choose a sixth colour for

Proposition

Let be planar. Then admits a colouring.

Proof

By induction. Let have degree at most Then colour in colours. Let be neighbourhoods of arranged clockwise WLOG they are all coloured differently, say by colours respectively. Consider the connected component of in the subgraph of consisting of vertices of colours If is not in that component, then swap colours and colour by Otherwise there is a path from to in colours Do similar for and with colours The graph is planar, so these two paths intersect But this is a contradiction.