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Can a cyclic graph look like n-butane, a linear organic molecule? Do cyclic graphs have to be circular?

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2 Answers

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A cyclic graph is a graph containing at least one graph cycle.

So for connected graphs, anything that isn't a tree.

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n-butane contains only C and H atoms and no rings. A graph representation in which the graph vertices represent the atoms and the graph edges represent the connections between the atoms does not contain any cycles (rings). Cyclobutane however contains a ring so could be represented with a cyclic graph.

Cyclic graphs contain cycles i.e. it is possible to find a path from a starting vertex traversing a set of unique edges and ending up back at the starting vertex.

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