The place of discrete mathematics in the curriculum is now well established but many of the textbooks on the subject are directed towards computer science students. This book is written primarily for students of mathematics in the first or second year of their degree and introduces the key ideas, techniques and results.

Klappentext

Drawing on many years'experience of teaching discrete mathem atics to students of all levels, Anderson introduces such as pects as enumeration, graph theory and configurations or arr angements. Starting with an introduction to counting and rel ated problems, he moves on to the basic ideas of graph theor y with particular emphasis on trees and planar graphs. He de scribes the inclusion-exclusion principle followed by partit ions of sets which in turn leads to a study of Stirling and Bell numbers. Then follows a treatment of Hamiltonian cycles, Eulerian circuits in graphs, and Latin squares as well as proof of Hall's theorem. He concludes with the constructions of schedules and a brief introduction to block designs. Each chapter is backed by a number of examples, with straightforw ard applications of ideas and more challenging problems.

Inhalt

1. Counting and Binomial Coefficients.- 2. Recurrence.- 3. Introduction to Graphs.- 4. Travelling Round a Graph.- 5. Partitions and Colourings.- 6. The Inclusion Exclusion Principle.- 7. Latin Squares and Hall's Theorem.- 8. Schedules and 1-Factorisations.- 9. Introduction to Designs.- Solutions.- Further Reading.