TITLE: Strange graph theory problem
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Let $G$ be a graph where every vertex has degree 1 or 3. Let $X$ be the set of all vertices of degree 1. Suppose there exists a set of edges $Y$ such that by removing these edges from $G$, each component of the remaining graph is a tree which contains exactly one vertex in $X$. Determine $|Y|$ in terms of $|V(G)|$.

I really can't think of how to do this problem. Surely there are graphs that fulfill the requirements and both have the same $|V(G)|$ but different $|Y|$s? How can $|Y|$ be written solely in terms of $|V(G)|$?

REPLY [6 votes]: Suppose that G is split into $|X|$ trees with $n_1, n_2, \dots, n_{|X|}$ vertices respectively. Then we have that $n_1 + n_2 + \dots n_{|X|} = |V(G)|$. Furthermore, each component contains exactly one vertex from $X$. The total number of edges in the trees is $(n_1 - 1) + (n_2 - 1) + \dots + (n_{|X|} - 1) = |V(G)| - |X|$.
But the total number of edges in $G$ originally was $\frac{1}{2} \sum_v \text{deg}(v) = \frac{1}{2} (|X| + 3(|V(G)| - |X|)) = \frac{3}{2} |V(G)| - |X|$
Therefore, we've removed exactly $\frac{|V(G)|}{2}$ edges.