Welcome to the home page for the Combinatorics Study Group, a class at Marlboro College in Spring 2014. If you're in the class, log-in at the top-right of the screen and you'll get access to more links on the left.

Combinatorics is a broad subfield of math concerned with discrete, often finite, structures. It is unusual in that it is possible to engage seriously with difficult questions in the field without an extensive list of prerequisites. That's exactly what we'll do here. Likely objects of study include graphs, Latin squares (sudoku puzzles being a well-known example of these) and combinatorial designs, enumeration problems and integer sequences. The goal of the course is not to give an account of the main tools or topics of combinatorics, although we'll do some of this in passing, but to get a taste for some of the many aspects involved in the creation of mathematics, including imagination, frustration, collaboration, bewilderment, hard work, insight, luck and maybe even joy.

May be repeated for credit.

Prerequisites: Previous math courses, ideally including Discrete Math or something similar. Programming experience is useful but not required.

You are expected to be aware of the college's policy on academic integrity and to abide by it. Please come and talk to me if anything is unclear.

http://cs.marlboro.edu/ courses/ spring2014/combinatorics/ home
last modified Sunday January 5 2014 4:15 pm EST