The Petersen graph is not planar

The following graph is called the Petersen graph. We will show that it is not planar by finding a
subgraph that is homeomorphic to the complete bipartite graph K3,3

First, label the vertices of the Petersen graph as shown. The subgraph that is homeomorphic to
K3,3 will have vertex set partitioned as {v1 , v2 , v3 } {w1 , w2 , w3 }. Remove the edges (x1 , x2 ) and
(x3 , x4 ), and then remove the vertices x1 , . . . , x4 through series reductions.
v1

v1

w2
w1

w2

x1

x2
v2

x3

w3

w1

w3

v3

v2
x4

The result is homeomorphic to K3,3

v1

v2

v3

w1

w2

w3

v3