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Minimum Spanning Tree Examples

A minimum spanning tree (MST) is a tree that connects all vertices of a graph while minimizing the total edge weight. Algorithms such as Kruskal's and Prim's are commonly used to find MSTs, which are essential for optimizing connections in scenarios like cable laying. The process involves selecting edges with the lowest weights while avoiding cycles until all nodes are connected.

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5 views6 pages

Minimum Spanning Tree Examples

A minimum spanning tree (MST) is a tree that connects all vertices of a graph while minimizing the total edge weight. Algorithms such as Kruskal's and Prim's are commonly used to find MSTs, which are essential for optimizing connections in scenarios like cable laying. The process involves selecting edges with the lowest weights while avoiding cycles until all nodes are connected.

Uploaded by

mr.shairshah
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What is a Minimum Spanning Tree?

A minimum spanning tree is a special kind of tree that minimizes the lengths (or “weights”) of
the edges of the tree. An example is a cable company wanting to lay line to multiple
neighborhoods; by minimizing the amount of cable laid, the cable company will save money.

A tree has one path joins any two vertices. A spanning tree of a graph is a tree that:

• Contains all the original graph’s vertices.


• Reaches out to (spans) all vertices.
• Is acyclic. In other words, the graph doesn’t have any nodes which loop back to itself.

Even the simplest of graphs can contain many spanning trees. For example, the following graph:
…has many possibilities for spanning trees, including:

Finding Minimum Spanning Trees


As you can probably imagine, larger graphs have more nodes and many more possibilities for
subgraphs. The number of subgraphs can quickly reach into the millions, or billions, making it
very difficult (and sometimes impossible) to find the minimum spanning tree. Additionally, the
lengths usually have different weights; one 5m long edge might be given a weight of 5, another
of the same length might be given a weight of 7.

A few popular algorithms for finding this minimum distance include: Kruskal’s algorithm,
Prim’s algorithm and Boruvka’s algorithm. These work for simple spanning trees. For more
complex graphs, you’ll probably need to use software.

Kruskal’s algorithm example


Find the edge with the least weight and highlight it. For this example graph, I’ve highlighted the
top edge (from A to C) in red. It has the lowest weight (of 1):
Find the next edge with the lowest weight and highlight it:

Continue selecting the lowest edges until all nodes are in the same tree.
Notes:

1. If you have more than one edge with the same weight, choose an edge with the lowest
weight.
2. Be careful not to complete a cycle (route one node back to itself). If your choice
completes a cycle, discard your choice and move onto the next largest weight.

The finished minimum spanning tree for this example looks like this:

What is Prim’s Algorithm?


Prim’s algorithm is one way to find a minimum spanning tree (MST).

A minimum spanning tree (shown in red) minimizes the edges (weights) of a tree.
How to Run Prim’s Algorithm
Step 1: Choose a random node and highlight it. For this example, I’m choosing node C.

Step 2: Find all of the edges that go to un-highlighted nodes. For this example, node C has three
edges with weights 1, 2, and 3. Highlight the edge with the lowest weight. For this example,
that’s 1.

Step 3: Highlight the node you just reached (in this example, that’s node A).

Step 4: Look at all of the nodes highlighted so far (in this example, that’s A And C). Highlight
the edge with lowest weight (in this example, that’s the edge with weight 2).

Note: if you have have more than one edge with the same weight, pick a random one.

Step 5: Highlight the node you just reached.

Step 6: Highlight the edge with the lowest weight. Choose from all of the edges that:

1. Come from all of the highlighted nodes.


2. Reach a node that you haven’t highlighted yet

Step 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 until you have no more un-highlighted nodes. For this particular
example, the specific steps remaining are:
• a. Highlight node E.
• b. Highlight edge 3 and then node D.
• c. Highlight edge 5 and then node B.
• d. Highlight edge 6 and then node F.
• e. Highlight edge 9 and then node G.

The finished graph is shown at the bottom right of this image:

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