‡ Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA
Broadly speaking, combinatorics is the branch of mathematics that deals with different ways of selecting objects from a set or arranging objects. It tries to answer two major kinds of questions, namely the existence question (does there exist a selection or arrangement of objects with a particular set of properties?) and the enumerative question (how many ways can a selection or arrangement be chosen with a particular set of properties?). But you may be surprised by the depth of problems that arise in combinatorics.
The main point to remember is that it really doesn’t matter what sort of objects are being discussed. We shall often assume that we are talking ...
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