Counting and Configurations

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Combinatorics

   • Jiří Herman, Radan Kučera, Jaromír Šimša

   Pages 1-106

3. Combinatorial Arithmetic

   • Jiří Herman, Radan Kučera, Jaromír Šimša

   Pages 107-216

4. Combinatorial Geometry

   • Jiří Herman, Radan Kučera, Jaromír Šimša

   Pages 217-285

5. Hints and Answers

   • Jiří Herman, Radan Kučera, Jaromír Šimša

   Pages 287-384

6. Back Matter

   Pages 385-392

   PDF

This book can be seen as a continuation of Equations and Inequalities: El­ ementary Problems and Theorems in Algebra and Number Theory by the same authors, and published as the first volume in this book series. How­ ever, it can be independently read or used as a textbook in its own right. This book is intended as a text for a problem-solving course at the first­ or second-year university level, as a text for enrichment classes for talented high-school students, or for mathematics competition training. It can also be used as a source of supplementary material for any course dealing with combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, or geometry, or for any of the discrete mathematics courses that are offered at most American and Canadian universities. The underlying "philosophy" of this book is the same as that of Equations and Inequalities. The following paragraphs are therefore taken from the preface of that book.

• Area
• Combinatorics
• algebra
• combinatorial geometry
• number theory

From the reviews:

THE BULLETIN OF MATHEMATICS BOOKS

"In each topic, brief theoretical discussions are immediately followed by carefully worked-out examples of increasing degrees of difficulty, and by exercises that range form routine to rather challenging. While this book emphasizes some methods that are not usually covered in beginning university courses, it nevertheless teaches techniques and skills that are useful not only in the specific topics covered here."

"This excellent book presents a wide range of combinatorial problems of all degrees of difficulties. The authors show how to approach the solution of such problems … . A large number of (solved) exercises give the reader the opportunity to check his advances." (Hansueli Hösli, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1055, 2005)

"This is a book about solving problems in combinatorics … . It covers a wide range of enumeration results … . All concepts and methods are introduced in problems followed by detailed solutions. … Besides the problems in the main text, there are hundreds of nice exercises each of which comes with either a hint or an answer. The index makes it possible to select exercises either according to the objects in the problem statement or the method used in the solution." (T. Eisenkölbl, Monatshefte für Mathematik, Vol. 144 (2), 2005)

"This book is written along the lines of the author’s previous volume … . In each topic there is a brief description of the theory, then carefully chosen worked examples in increasing order of difficulty, and then exercises … . With the outline solutions providing hints if necessary, the reader is thus lead along carefully chosen paths … . All the more welcome, then, is a book like this which attempts to get the reader to think about mathematics … ." (Ian Anderson, The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 88 (512), 2004)

"This is a translation of the second Czech edition of a book whose title translates as Methods forSolving Mathematical Problems, vol. II. It is a rich compendium of problems (310 worked examples, plus 650 exercises having hints or solutions … . The translation is generally excellent … . This book would be ideal for preparing high school students for competitions … and is an outstanding source of classroom and homework problems for college students taking a course in combinatorics." (S.W. Golomb, Mathematical Reviews, 2003j)

"Most problem books have a limited number of rather challenging problems. While these problems tend to be quite beautiful, they can appear forbidding and discouraging to a beginning student … . After going through the chapters the reader will be convinced that the authors are not making these errors. The chapter headings describe the covered material quite well … . This book is intended as a text for a problem-solving course at the first-or second-year university level … ." (Péter Hajnal, Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, Vol. 69, 2003)

• Brno Grammar School, Brno, Czech Republic

  Jiří Herman

• Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

  Radan Kučera

• Mathematical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic

  Jaromír Šimša

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