Math Playground
Puzzles

Königsberg bridges

Cross every bridge once — Euler proved you can't. See why.

In 1736, Königsberg had seven bridges. The puzzle: walk through the city crossing each bridge exactly once. Euler proved it's impossible — and invented graph theory in the process.

The rule: a graph has an Eulerian path (one that crosses each edge once) only if it has exactly 0 or 2 vertices with an odd number of edges. Königsberg had 4 — so no path exists.