Syllabus of Math 386, Combinatorics
Fall, 2006


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Textbook

Introductory Combinatorics, 4th edition, by Richard A. Brualdi.

List of material covered

(This list is subject to change and is not the same every year. The topics are not in order.)

Chapter 1: What is Combinatorics?

Introduction to combinatorics.
Sections 1, 2, 3, 5 on various types of combinatorial problems.

Chapter 2: The Pigeonhole Principle

Sections 1-2: The pigeonhole principle.

Chapter 3: Permutations and Combinations

All sections: basic counting, with and without repetition.

Chapter 5: The Binomial Coefficients

Sections 1-3, 5: Binomial identities, combinatorial proofs, binomial and multinomial theorems.
Section 4: Unimodality and Sperner's theorem.

Chapter 6: The Inclusion-Exclusion Principle and Applications

Sections 1-5: The Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion and a variety of ways to apply it, notably combinations with repetition, derangements, permutations with forbidden positions, circular permutations with forbidden relations.

Chapter 10: Combinatorial Designs

Section 1: Modular arithmetic.
Section 4 (first half, to page 403): Latin squares.
Extra: Affine planes.


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