Introductory Combinatorics (3rd Edition)

Introductory Combinatorics (3rd Edition) by Brualdi, Richard A.. Hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780131814882.

Introductory Combinatorics emphasizes combinatorial ideas, including the pigeon-hole principle, counting techniques, permutations and combinations, Polya counting, binomial coefficients, inclusion-exclusion principle, generating functions and recurrence relations, and combinatortial structures (matchings, designs, graphs). Written to be entertaining and readable, this books lively style reflects the authors joy for teaching the subject. It presents an excellent treatment of Polyas Counting Theorem that doesnt assume the student is familiar with group theory. It also includes problems that offer good practice of the principles it presents. The third edition of Introductory Combinatorics has been updated to include new material on partially ordered sets, Dilworths Theorem, partitions of integers and generating functions. In addition, the chapters on graph theory have been completely revised. A valuable book for any reader interested in learning more about combinatorics.