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POV: Family tree is not a good example #1950
Description
The description of the POV exercise contains this part:
For example family trees are usually presented from the ancestor's perspective
However, the exercise is about having a tree with some root and then making some other node the root. This only makes sense
a) if there is only one root node
b) if there is no direction in the tree (undirected graph) otherwise if there would a direction e.g. away from the root, changing the root would change the graph/tree.
A family tree has usually has two root nodes (2 people having offspring) and has a direction (e.g. from parent to child, it does not make sense to switch the root to a child). So a family tree is not a good example to use.
Can someone think of a better example where there is only one root and the task of changing the root but representing the same tree would actually make sense?
Activity
BethanyG commentedon Feb 6, 2022
Taxonomy maybe? Although it is a jargon fest for sure.
There are also network topology graphs where re-arranging might make sense -- but also full of jargon.
That may be why a truncated or contrived family tree was chosen -- the other examples I've see are maybe more daunting. It also (sadly) is a very common academic example, from what I can see while a-googling.
BethanyG commentedon Feb 6, 2022
On a side note, this article is a nice one for introducing how you would root a tree. 😄