mathematics

S. L. Hakimi

S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi rather than just read about it. In short: Seifollah Louis Hakimi (1932–June 23, 2006) was an Iranian-American mathematician born in Iran, a professor emeritus at Northwestern University, where he chaired the department of electrical engineering from 1973 to 1978. He was chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at University of California, Davis, from 1986 to 1996.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Seifollah Louis Hakimi (1932–June 23, 2006) was an Iranian-American mathematician born in Iran, a professor emeritus at Northwestern University, where he chaired the department of electrical engineering from 1973 to 1978. He was chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at University of California, Davis, from 1986 to 1996. Born in Mashhad, Iran, to an Iranian Jewish family, Hakimi moved to the United States in the early 1950s. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1959, under the supervision of Mac Van Valkenburg. He has over 100 academic descendants, most of them via his student Narsingh Deo. He is known for characterizing the degree sequences of undirected graphs, for formulating the Steiner tree problem on networks, and for his work on facility location problems on networks.

Selected publications Hakimi, S. L. (1963), "On realizability of a set of integers as degrees of the vertices of a linear graph. II. Uniqueness", J. Soc. Indust. Appl. Math., 11 (1): 135–147, doi:10.1137/0111010, JSTOR 2098770, MR 0153001. Hakimi, S. L. (1964), "Optimum locations of switching centers and the absolute centers and medians of a graph", Operations Research, 12 (3): 450–459, doi:10.1287/opre.12.3.450. Hakimi, S. L. (1971), "Steiner's problem in graphs and its implications", Networks, 1 (2): 113–133, doi:10.1002/net.3230010203, MR 0295947. Megiddo, N.; Hakimi, S. L.; Garey, M. R.; Johnson, D. S.; Papadimitriou, C. H. (1988), "The complexity of searching a graph", Journal of the ACM, 35 (1): 18–44, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.63.3708, doi:10.1145/42267.42268, S2CID 1521081 {{citation}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |citeseerx= (help). Bauer, D.; Hakimi, S. L.; Schmeichel, E. (1990), "Recognizing tough graphs is NP-hard", Discrete Applied Mathematics, 28 (3): 191–195, doi:10.1016/0166-218X(90)90001-S, MR 1074858.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with S. L. Hakimi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi

In research: S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi 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: S. L. Hakimi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1932 births, 2006 deaths, 20th-century Iranian mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is S. L. Hakimi in simple terms?

Why does S. L. Hakimi 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 S. L. Hakimi?

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 S. L. Hakimi.