mathematics

Michael D. Plummer

Michael D. Plummer is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael D. Plummer rather than just read about it. In short: Michael David Plummer (born 1937) is a retired mathematics professor from Vanderbilt University. His field of work is in graph theory in which he has produced over a hundred papers and publications.

Key takeaways

Michael D. Plummer belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael D. Plummer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael D. Plummer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael David Plummer (born 1937) is a retired mathematics professor from Vanderbilt University. His field of work is in graph theory in which he has produced over a hundred papers and publications. He has also spoken at over a hundred and fifty guest lectures around the world.

Education and career Plummer was born in Akron, Ohio on August 31, 1937. He grew up in Lima, Ohio where he attended Lima Central High School, graduating in 1955. He then went to Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana on an honor scholarship, with a double major in mathematics and physics. He then took a graduate fellowship in physics at the University of Michigan, but after one year of the program, switched to mathematics; in 1966 he was awarded his Ph.D., with a thesis supervised by Frank Harary. After postdoctoral studies at Yale University from 1966 to 1968, Plummer took an assistant professorship in the recently formed Department of Computer Science at City College of New York which was part of the School of Engineering. In 1970 he joined the Department of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University, and remained there until his retirement in 2008.

Contributions Among his other contributions to graph theory, Plummer is responsible for defining well-covered graphs, for making with László Lovász the now-proven conjecture (generalizing Petersen's theorem) that every bridgeless cubic graph has an exponential number of perfect matchings, and for being one of several mathematicians to conjecture the result now known as Fleischner's theorem on Hamiltonian cycles in squares of graphs.

Awards and honors Plummer is a Foundation Fellow of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications. In 1991, he shared the Niveau Prize of the Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with László Lovász for their book, Matching Theory.

Selected publications Research papers Plummer, Michael D. (1970), "Some covering concepts in graphs", Journal of Combinatorial Theory, 8: 91–98, doi:10.1016/S0021-9800(70)80011-4, MR 0289347. Plummer, M. D. (1980), "On n-extendable graphs", Discrete Mathematics, 31 (2): 201–210, doi:10.1016/0012-365X(80)90037-0, MR 0583220. Books Lovász, László; Plummer, M. D. (1986), Matching Theory, Annals of Discrete Mathematics, vol. 29, North-Holland, ISBN 0-444-87916-1, MR 0859549

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael D. Plummer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael D. Plummer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael D. Plummer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael D. Plummer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael D. Plummer

In research: Michael D. Plummer appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael D. Plummer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael D. Plummer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1937 births, 20th-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael D. Plummer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael D. Plummer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael D. Plummer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael D. Plummer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael D. Plummer in simple terms?

Michael David Plummer (born 1937) is a retired mathematics professor from Vanderbilt University. His field of work is in graph theory in which he has produced over a hundred papers and publications.

Why does Michael D. Plummer matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael D. Plummer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael D. Plummer.