E-mail: grabiner@math.lsa.umich.edu
Textbooks
The assigned textbook is Kenneth P. Bogart, Introductory
Combinatorics, Second Edition, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.
The following textbooks (in increasing order of sophistication) are
on reserve in the Shapiro Science Library.
Brualdi, Introductory Combinatorics. This book covers the
introductory material in more detail, and also covers a few topics not
in Bogart.
Polya, Tarjan, and Woods, Notes on Introductory
Combinatorics. The actual lectures for a course similar to ours.
The book is very readable, and has a particularly good treatment of
Polya's Theory of Counting.
Bondy and Murty, Graph Theory with Applications. This book
covers many different areas in graph theory in a fair amount of depth,
with emphasis on algorithms and applications. It will be of particular
interest to computer scientists.
Stanley, Enumerative Combinatorics, Volume I. This is a more
advanced book, covering many areas related to the basic enumerative
results we will cover.
Homework and Take-Home Exam
Homework will be assigned every two weeks. There will be a take-home
final exam, due by the regular exam period for this course, December 18
from 10:30 to 12:30.
Homework #1, due 9/25/98
Homework #2, due 10/9/98
Homework #3, due 10/23/98
Homework #4, due 11/6/98
Homework #5, due 11/20/98
Homework #6, due 12/4/98
Homework #7, due 12/11/98
Final exam
Paper
Choose a combinatorics topic not covered in this course (for example,
one of the sections of a textbook which is not covered in lecture), and
write a 2-3 page paper on that topic. The topic must be approved in
advance. This paper may be handed in at any time during the semester;
it is recommended that you work on the paper when the course covers
related material.
Lecture schedule
Grading
60% homework + 10% paper + 30% final exam