of the edges which if removed would disconnect the source from the sink.

For example, imagine a network of pipes carrying water from a reservoir (the source) to a city (the sink). Each pipe has a capacity representing the maximum amount of water that can flow through it per unit of time. The max-flow min-cut theorem tells us that the maximum amount of water that can reach the city is limited by the smallest total capacity of any set of pipes that, if cut, would completely isolate the reservoir from the city. This smallest total capacity