unit network flows unit network flows notes contents objectives introduction network flow ford fulkerson method comparison networks network flow problem minimum spanning tree kruskal' algorithm prim' algorithm summary keywords self assessment review questions further readings objectives after studying this unityou will be able toexplain network flow describe problem of network flow know minimum spanning tree introduction we use graphs as models of practical situations involving routesthe vertices represent the cities and edges represent the roads or some other linksspecially in transportation managementassignment problems and many more optimization problems electric circuits are another obvious example where interconnections between objects play central role circuits elements like transistorsresistorsand capacitors are intricately wired together such circuits can be represented and processed within computer in order to answer simple questions like "is everything connected together?as well as complicated questions like "if this circuit is builtwill it work? network flow network flow is an advanced branch of graph theory the problem resolves around special type of weighted directed graph with two special verticesthe source vertexwhich has no incoming edgeand the sink vertexwhich has no outgoing edge by conventionthe source vertex is usually labelled and the sink vertex labelled lovely professional university