Combinatorics and Graph Theory [Hardcover]

These notes were first used in an introductory course team taught by the authors at Appalachian State University to advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates. The text was written with four pedagogical goals in mind: offer a variety of topics in one course, get to the main themes and tools as efficiently as possible, show the relationships between the different topics, and include recent results to convince students that mathematics is a living discipline.

The second edition of this text on combinatorics and graph theory includes new material on an array topics ranging from Eulerian trails to combinatorial geometry to the pigeonhole principle. There are also numerous new exercises throughout the book.

There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to create a successful sequel.  Randy Meeks, from the trailer to Scream 2 While we may not follow the precise rules that Mr. Meeks had in mind for s- cessful sequels, we have made a number of changes to the text in this second edition. In the new edition, we continue to introduce new topics with concrete - amples, we provide complete proofs of almost every result, and we preserve the booksfriendlystyle andlivelypresentation,interspersingthetextwith occasional jokes and quotations. The rst two chapters, on graph theory and combinatorics, remain largely independent, and may be covered in either order. Chapter 3, on in nite combinatorics and graphs, may also be studied independently, although many readers will want to investigate trees, matchings, and Ramsey theory for nite sets before exploring these topics for in nite sets in the third chapter. Like the rst edition, this text is aimed at upper-division undergraduate students in mathematics, though others will nd much of interest as well. It assumes only familiarity with basic proof techniques, and some experience with matrices and in nite series. The second edition offersmany additionaltopics for use in the classroom or for independentstudylÃ.