This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course lasting one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course.Just as with the first three editions, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible to the talented and hardworking undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings, Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles, and planar graphs.New to this edition are the Quick Check exercises at the end of each section. In all, the new edition contains about 240 new exercises. Extra examples were added to some sections where readers asked for them.The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, the theory of designs, enumeration under group action, generating functions of labeled and unlabeled structures and algorithms and complexity.The book encourages students to learn more combinatorics, provides them with a not only useful but also enjoyable and engaging reading.The Solution Manual is available upon request for all instructors who adopt this book as a course text. Please send your request to sales@wspc.com.The previous edition of this textbook has been adopted at various schools including UCLA, MIT, University of Michigan, and Swarthmore College. It was also translated into Korean.

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course that can take up one or two semesters. An extensive list of exercises, ranging in difficulty from “routine” to “worthy of independent publication”, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the text before, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course. It goes without saying that the text covers the classic areas, i.e. combinatorial choice problems and graph theory. What is unusual, for an undergraduate textbook, is that the author has included a number of more elaborate concepts, such as Ramsey theory, the probabilistic method and — probably the first of its kind — pattern avoidance. While the reader can only skim the surface of these areas, the author believes that they are interesting enough to catch the attention of some students. As the goal of the book is to encourage students to learn more combinatorics, every effort has been made to provide them with a not only useful, but also enjoyable and engaging reading.

The first half of the book walks the reader through methods of counting, both direct elementary methods and the more advanced method of generating functions. Then, in the second half of the book, the reader learns how to apply these methods to fascinating objects, such as graphs, designs, random variables, partially ordered sets, and algorithms. In short, the first half emphasizes depth by discussing counting methods at length; the second half aims for breadth, by showing how numerous the applications of our methods are.New to this fifth edition of A Walk Through Combinatorics is the addition of Instant Check exercises — more than a hundred in total — which are located at the end of most subsections. As was the case for all previous editions, the exercises sometimes contain new material that was not discussed in the text, allowing instructors to spend more time on a given topic if they wish to do so. With a thorough introduction into enumeration and graph theory, as well as a chapter on permutation patterns (not often covered in other textbooks), this book is well suited for any undergraduate introductory combinatorics class.

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course lasting one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course.Just as with the first two editions, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible to the talented and hardworking undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings, Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles, and planar graphs.The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, the theory of designs (new to this edition), enumeration under group action (new to this edition), generating functions of labeled and unlabeled structures and algorithms and complexity.As the goal of the book is to encourage students to learn more combinatorics, every effort has been made to provide them with a not only useful, but also enjoyable and engaging reading.The Solution Manual is available upon request for all instructors who adopt this book as a course text. Please send your request to sales@wspc.com.

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course that can take up one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course. Just as with the first edition, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible for the talented and hard-working undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings and Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles. The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, and algorithms and complexity. As the goal of the book is to encourage students to learn more combinatorics, every effort has been made to provide them with a not only useful, but also enjoyable and engaging reading.

This book gives a lively development of the mathematics needed to answer the question, “How many times should a deck of cards be shuffled to mix it up?” The shuffles studied are the usual ones that real people use: riffle, overhand, and smooshing cards around on the table. The mathematics ranges from probability (Markov chains) to combinatorics (symmetric function theory) to algebra (Hopf algebras). There are applications to magic tricks and gambling along with a careful comparison of the mathematics to the results of real people shuffling real cards. The book explores links between shuffling and higher mathematics—Lie theory, algebraic topology, the geometry of hyperplane arrangements, stochastic calculus, number theory, and more. It offers a useful springboard for seeing how probability theory is applied and leads to many corners of advanced mathematics. The book can serve as a text for an upper division course in mathematics, statistics, or computer science departments and will be appreciated by graduate students and researchers in mathematics, statistics, and computer science, as well as magicians and people with a strong background in mathematics who are interested in games that use playing cards.

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course lasting one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course.Just as with the first three editions, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible to the talented and hardworking undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings, Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles, and planar graphs.New to this edition are the Quick Check exercises at the end of each section. In all, the new edition contains about 240 new exercises. Extra examples were added to some sections where readers asked for them.The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, the theory of designs, enumeration under group action, generating functions of labeled and unlabeled structures and algorithms and complexity.The book encourages students to learn more combinatorics, provides them with a not only useful but also enjoyable and engaging reading.The Solution Manual is available upon request for all instructors who adopt this book as a course text. Please send your request to sales@wspc.com.The previous edition of this textbook has been adopted at various schools including UCLA, MIT, University of Michigan, and Swarthmore College. It was also translated into Korean.

The essential reference book on matrices—now fully updated and expanded, with new material on scalar and vector mathematics Since its initial publication, this book has become the essential reference for users of matrices in all branches of engineering, science, and applied mathematics. In this revised and expanded edition, Dennis Bernstein combines extensive material on scalar and vector mathematics with the latest results in matrix theory to make this the most comprehensive, current, and easy-to-use book on the subject. Each chapter describes relevant theoretical background followed by specialized results. Hundreds of identities, inequalities, and facts are stated clearly and rigorously, with cross-references, citations to the literature, and helpful comments. Beginning with preliminaries on sets, logic, relations, and functions, this unique compendium covers all the major topics in matrix theory, such as transformations and decompositions, polynomial matrices, generalized inverses, and norms. Additional topics include graphs, groups, convex functions, polynomials, and linear systems. The book also features a wealth of new material on scalar inequalities, geometry, combinatorics, series, integrals, and more. Now more comprehensive than ever, Scalar, Vector, and Matrix Mathematics includes a detailed list of symbols, a summary of notation and conventions, an extensive bibliography and author index with page references, and an exhaustive subject index. Fully updated and expanded with new material on scalar and vector mathematics Covers the latest results in matrix theory Provides a list of symbols and a summary of conventions for easy and precise use Includes an extensive bibliography with back-referencing plus an author index

This book gives the definitive mathematical answer to what thermodynamics really is: a variational calculus applied to probability distributions. Extending Gibbs's notion of ensemble, the Author imagines the ensemble of all possible probability distributions and assigns probabilities to them by selection rules that are fairly general. The calculus of the most probable distribution in the ensemble produces the entire network of mathematical relationships we recognize as thermodynamics. The first part of the book develops the theory for discrete and continuous distributions while the second part applies this thermodynamic calculus to problems in population balance theory and shows how the emergence of a giant component in aggregation, and the shattering transition in fragmentation may be treated as formal phase transitions. While the book is intended as a research monograph, the material is self-contained and the style sufficiently tutorial to be accessible for self-paced study by an advanced graduate student in such fields as physics, chemistry, and engineering.

This volume aims to provide a reference to the development of robotic intelligence, built upon Semantic Computing, in terms of 'action' to realize the 'context' and 'intention' formulated by Semantics Computing during the 'thinking' or reasoning process. It addresses three core areas: