In: Advanced Math
Prove that \strongly connected" is an equivalence relation on
the vertex set of a directed graph
Definition:
We say that a vertex a is strongly connected to b if there exist two paths, one from a to b and another from b to a.
Note that we allow the two paths to share vertices or even to share edges. We will use a ~ b as shorthand for "a is strongly connected to b". We will allow very short paths, with one vertex and no edges, so that any vertex is strongly connected to itself.
Proof :
An equivalence relation a # b is a relation that satisfies three simple properties:
Since all three properties are true of strong connectivity, strong connectivity is an equivalence relation.