Graphs: How to prove that chromatic number of graph $G$ is $2^k$ if and only is $G$ is union of $k$ bipartite graphs?

Prove that chromatic number of graph $G$ is $2^k$ if and only is $G$ is union of $k$ bipartite graphs.

Any hints how to prove this statement?


Solution 1:

The statement is incorrect and should presumably be "$G$ is $2^k$-colourable if and only if it is a union of $k$ bipartite graphs".

Hint: fix a proper $2^k$-colouring, and think of the colours as binary strings of length $k$. For each position in the strings, consider what would happen if you $2$-coloured the vertices based on that position only.