A Path to Combinatorics for Undergraduates
Subtitle: Counting Strategies
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Birkhäuser Boston; Birkh�user Boston; Birkhäuser
Published: November 11, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 228
ISBN-13: 9780817642884
Subjects: Combinatorics & graph theory; Geometry - General; Combinatorics; Science; Textbooks; Science/Mathematics; Discrete Mathematics; Mathematics / Combinatorics; combinatorical geometry; geometry; Combinatorial number theory; General; Combinatorial analysis
Description: This unique approach to combinatorics is centered around challenging examples, fully-worked solutions, and hundreds of problems---many from Olympiads and other competitions, and many original to the authors. Each chapter highlights a particular aspect of the subject and casts combinatorial concepts in the guise of questions, illustrations, and exercises that are designed to encourage creativity, improve problem-solving techniques, and widen the reader's mathematical horizons. Topics encompass permutations and combinations, binomial coefficients and their applications, recursion, bijections, inclusions and exclusions, and generating functions. The work is replete with a broad range of useful methods and results, such as Sperner's Theorem, Catalan paths, integer partitions and Young's diagrams, and Lucas' and Kummer's Theorems on divisibility. Strong emphasis is placed on connections between combinatorial and graph-theoretic reasoning and on links between algebra and geometry. The authors' previous text, 102 Combinatorial Problems, makes a fine companion volume to the present work, which is ideal for Olympiad participants and coaches, advanced high school students, undergraduates, and college instructors. The book's unusual problems and examples will stimulate seasoned mathematicians as well. A Path to Combinatorics for Undergraduates is a lively introduction not only to combinatorics, but also to mathematical ingenuity, rigor, and the joy of solving puzzles.