🌍 Understanding the Four Color Theorem
The Four Color Theorem states that given any separation of a plane into contiguous regions (such as a geographical map of countries), no more than four colors are required to color the regions of the map so that no two adjacent regions share the same color.
This problem was first posed by Francis Guthrie in 1852 while coloring a map of the counties of England. It went unsolved for over a century until 1976, when Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken proved it. It was the first major mathematical theorem to be proved using computer calculations, which checked over 1,900 special cases.