mathematics

Ping Zhang (graph theorist)

Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist) rather than just read about it. In short: Ping Zhang is a mathematician specializing in graph theory. She is a professor of mathematics at Western Michigan University and the author of many textbooks on graph theory and mathematical proof.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ping Zhang is a mathematician specializing in graph theory. She is a professor of mathematics at Western Michigan University and the author of many textbooks on graph theory and mathematical proof. Zhang earned a master's degree in 1989 from the University of Jordan, working there on ring theory with Hasan Al-Ezeh. She completed her Ph.D. in 1995 at Michigan State University. Her dissertation, in algebraic combinatorics, was Subposets of Boolean Algebras, and was supervised by Bruce Sagan. After a short-term position at the University of Texas at El Paso, she joined the Western Michigan faculty in 1996.

Books Zhang is the author of:

Mathematical Proofs: A Transition to Advanced Mathematics (with Gary Chartrand and A. D. Polimeni, Addison-Wesley, 2002; 2nd ed., 2007; 3rd ed., 2012) Introduction to Graph Theory (with Gary Chartrand, McGraw-Hill, 2004; Chinese ed., 2006); revised as A First Course in Graph Theory (Dover, 2012) Chromatic Graph Theory (with Gary Chartrand, CRC Press, 2008) Graphs & Digraphs (by Gary Chartrand and Linda Lesniak, with Zhang added as a co-author on the 5th ed., CRC Press, 2010) Discrete Mathematics (with Gary Chartrand, Waveland Press, 2011) Covering Walks in Graphs (with Futaba Fujie, Springer, 2014) Color-Induced Graph Colorings (Springer, 2015) The Fascinating World of Graph Theory (with Arthur T. Benjamin and Gary Chartrand, Princeton University Press, 2015) A Kaleidoscopic View of Graph Colorings (Springer, 2016) How to Label a Graph (with Gary Chartrand and Cooroo Egan, Springer, 2019) MR 3932147 Irregularity in Graphs (with Akbar Ali and Gary Chartrand, Springer, 2021) MR 4292275 She is also the co-editor of:

Handbook of Graph Theory (originally edited by Jonathan L. Gross and Jay Yellen, with Zhang added as a co-editor on the 2nd ed., CRC Press, 2013)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ping Zhang (graph theorist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist)

In research: Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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: Ping Zhang (graph theorist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American mathematicians, 20th-century American women mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ping Zhang (graph theorist) in simple terms?

Ping Zhang is a mathematician specializing in graph theory. She is a professor of mathematics at Western Michigan University and the author of many textbooks on graph theory and mathematical proof.

Why does Ping Zhang (graph theorist) 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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist)?

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 Ping Zhang (graph theorist).