Applied Combinatorics, Third Edition [Hardcover]

Chapter 1: What Is Combinatorics? THE BASIC TOOLS OF COMBINATORICS Chapter 2: Basic Counting Rules; Chapter 3: Introduction to Graph Theory; Chapter 4 Relations; THE COUNTING PROBLEM Chapter 5: Generating Functions and Their Applications; Chapter 6: Recurrence Relations; Chapter 7: The Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion; Chapter 8: The P?lya Theory of Counting; THE EXISTENCE PROBLEM Chapter 9: Combinatorial Designs; Chapter 10: Coding Theory; Chapter 11: Existence Problems in Graph Theory; COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION Chapter 12: Matching and Covering; Chapter 13: Optimization Problems for Graphs and Networks; Appendix: Answers to Selected Exercises; Author Index; Subject Index; References appear at the end of each chapter.

The third edition of this popular text presents the tools of combinatorics for a first undergraduate course.?

The original goal of writing this book was to introduce the reader to the tools of combinatorics from an applied point of view. This third edition of Applied Combinatorics was substantially rewritten. There are many new examples and exercises. References throughout the book to modern literature and real applications, a key feature of the book, have been updated and expanded. The exposition continues to be updated with each new edition, as the first edition was published 40 years ago.

The emphasis on applications from computer science, genetics, experimental design, chemistry, scheduling, voting, and other topics remains a central feature of the book. Unique to the literature is that entire sections focus on applications such as switching functions, the use of enzymes to uncover unknown RNA chains, searching and sorting problems of information retrieval, construction of error-correcting codes, counting of chemical compounds, calculation of power in voting situations, and uses of Fibonacci numbers. There are entire sections on applilc*