Reason for finding partial order of a graph

Question

In a recent algorithms course we had to form a condensation graph and compute its reflexive-transitive closure to get a partial order. But it was never really explained why we would want to do that in a graph. I understand the gist of a condensation graph in that it highlights the strongly connected components, but what does the partial order give us that the original graph did not?

The algorithm implemented went like this:

1. Find strongly connected components (I used Tarjan)

2. Create condensation graph for the SCCs

3. Form reflexive-transitive closure of adjacency matrix (I used Warshall)

Doing that forms the partial order, but.... what advantage does finding the partial order give us?

Answer 1

One possible use: It lets you answer the question "is vertex $y$ reachable from vertex $x$?" in $O(1)$ time.