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Combinatorial Principle
In proving results in combinatorics several useful combinatorial rules or combinatorial principles are commonly recognized and used. The rule of sum, rule of product, and inclusion–exclusion principle are often used for enumerative purposes. Bijective proofs are utilized to demonstrate that two sets have the same number of elements. The pigeonhole principle often ascertains the existence of something or is used to determine the minimum or maximum number of something in a discrete context. Many combinatorial identities arise from double counting methods or the method of distinguished element. Generating functions and recurrence relations are powerful tools that can be used to manipulate sequences, and can describe if not resolve many combinatorial situations. Rule of sum The rule of sum is an intuitive principle stating that if there are ''a'' possible outcomes for an event (or ways to do something) and ''b'' possible outcomes for another event (or ways to do another th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Combinatorics
Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many applications ranging from logic to statistical physics and from evolutionary biology to computer science. Combinatorics is well known for the breadth of the problems it tackles. Combinatorial problems arise in many areas of pure mathematics, notably in algebra, probability theory, topology, and geometry, as well as in its many application areas. Many combinatorial questions have historically been considered in isolation, giving an ''ad hoc'' solution to a problem arising in some mathematical context. In the later twentieth century, however, powerful and general theoretical methods were developed, making combinatorics into an independent branch of mathematics in its own right. One of the oldest and most accessible parts of combinatorics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Counting (proof Technique)
In combinatorics, double counting, also called counting in two ways, is a combinatorial proof technique for showing that two expressions are equal by demonstrating that they are two ways of counting the size of one set. In this technique, which call "one of the most important tools in combinatorics", one describes a finite set from two perspectives leading to two distinct expressions for the size of the set. Since both expressions equal the size of the same set, they equal each other. Examples Multiplication (of natural numbers) commutes This is a simple example of double counting, often used when teaching multiplication to young children. In this context, multiplication of natural numbers is introduced as repeated addition, and is then shown to be commutative by counting, in two different ways, a number of items arranged in a rectangular grid. Suppose the grid has n rows and m columns. We first count the items by summing n rows of m items each, then a second time by summing m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Closed-form Expression
In mathematics, an expression or equation is in closed form if it is formed with constants, variables, and a set of functions considered as ''basic'' and connected by arithmetic operations (, and integer powers) and function composition. Commonly, the basic functions that are allowed in closed forms are ''n''th root, exponential function, logarithm, and trigonometric functions. However, the set of basic functions depends on the context. For example, if one adds polynomial roots to the basic functions, the functions that have a closed form are called elementary functions. The ''closed-form problem'' arises when new ways are introduced for specifying mathematical objects, such as limits, series, and integrals: given an object specified with such tools, a natural problem is to find, if possible, a ''closed-form expression'' of this object; that is, an expression of this object in terms of previous ways of specifying it. Example: roots of polynomials The quadratic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bijective Function
In mathematics, a bijection, bijective function, or one-to-one correspondence is a function between two sets such that each element of the second set (the codomain) is the image of exactly one element of the first set (the domain). Equivalently, a bijection is a relation between two sets such that each element of either set is paired with exactly one element of the other set. A function is bijective if it is invertible; that is, a function f:X\to Y is bijective if and only if there is a function g:Y\to X, the ''inverse'' of , such that each of the two ways for composing the two functions produces an identity function: g(f(x)) = x for each x in X and f(g(y)) = y for each y in Y. For example, the ''multiplication by two'' defines a bijection from the integers to the even numbers, which has the ''division by two'' as its inverse function. A function is bijective if and only if it is both injective (or ''one-to-one'')—meaning that each element in the codomain is mapped fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disjoint Sets
In set theory in mathematics and Logic#Formal logic, formal logic, two Set (mathematics), sets are said to be disjoint sets if they have no element (mathematics), element in common. Equivalently, two disjoint sets are sets whose intersection (set theory), intersection is the empty set.. For example, and are ''disjoint sets,'' while and are not disjoint. A collection of two or more sets is called disjoint if any two distinct sets of the collection are disjoint. Generalizations This definition of disjoint sets can be extended to family of sets, families of sets and to indexed family, indexed families of sets. By definition, a collection of sets is called a ''family of sets'' (such as the power set, for example). In some sources this is a set of sets, while other sources allow it to be a multiset of sets, with some sets repeated. An \left(A_i\right)_, is by definition a set-valued Function (mathematics), function (that is, it is a function that assigns a set A_i to every ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recurrence Relation
In mathematics, a recurrence relation is an equation according to which the nth term of a sequence of numbers is equal to some combination of the previous terms. Often, only k previous terms of the sequence appear in the equation, for a parameter k that is independent of n; this number k is called the ''order'' of the relation. If the values of the first k numbers in the sequence have been given, the rest of the sequence can be calculated by repeatedly applying the equation. In ''linear recurrences'', the th term is equated to a linear function of the k previous terms. A famous example is the recurrence for the Fibonacci numbers, F_n=F_+F_ where the order k is two and the linear function merely adds the two previous terms. This example is a linear recurrence with constant coefficients, because the coefficients of the linear function (1 and 1) are constants that do not depend on n. For these recurrences, one can express the general term of the sequence as a closed-form expression o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generating Function
In mathematics, a generating function is a representation of an infinite sequence of numbers as the coefficients of a formal power series. Generating functions are often expressed in closed form (rather than as a series), by some expression involving operations on the formal series. There are various types of generating functions, including ordinary generating functions, exponential generating functions, Lambert series, Bell series, and Dirichlet series. Every sequence in principle has a generating function of each type (except that Lambert and Dirichlet series require indices to start at 1 rather than 0), but the ease with which they can be handled may differ considerably. The particular generating function, if any, that is most useful in a given context will depend upon the nature of the sequence and the details of the problem being addressed. Generating functions are sometimes called generating series, in that a series of terms can be said to be the generator of its sequence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Method Of Distinguished Element
In the mathematical field of enumerative combinatorics, identities are sometimes established by arguments that rely on singling out one "distinguished element" of a set. Definition Let \mathcal be a family of subsets of the set A and let x \in A be a distinguished element of set A. Then suppose there is a predicate P(X,x) that relates a subset X\subseteq A to x. Denote \mathcal(x) to be the set of subsets X from \mathcal for which P(X,x) is true and \mathcal-x to be the set of subsets X from \mathcal for which P(X,x) is false, Then \mathcal(x) and \mathcal-x are disjoint sets, so by the method of summation, the cardinalities are additive :, \mathcal, = , \mathcal(x), + , \mathcal-x, Thus the distinguished element allows for a decomposition according to a predicate that is a simple form of a divide and conquer algorithm. In combinatorics, this allows for the construction of recurrence relations. Examples are in the next section. Examples * The binomial coefficient is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Combinatorial Identities
Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many applications ranging from logic to statistical physics and from evolutionary biology to computer science. Combinatorics is well known for the breadth of the problems it tackles. Combinatorial problems arise in many areas of pure mathematics, notably in algebra, probability theory, topology, and geometry, as well as in its many application areas. Many combinatorial questions have historically been considered in isolation, giving an ''ad hoc'' solution to a problem arising in some mathematical context. In the later twentieth century, however, powerful and general theoretical methods were developed, making combinatorics into an independent branch of mathematics in its own right. One of the oldest and most accessible parts of combinatorics is gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rule Of Sum
In combinatorics, the addition principle or rule of sum is a basic counting principle. Stated simply, it is the intuitive idea that if we have ''A'' number of ways of doing something and ''B'' number of ways of doing another thing and we can not do both at the same time, then there are A + B ways to choose one of the actions. In mathematical terms, the addition principle states that, for disjoint sets ''A'' and ''B'', we have , A\cup B, = , A, + , B, , provided that the intersection of the sets is without any elements. The rule of sum is a fact about set theory, as can be seen with the previously mentioned equation for the union of disjoint sets A and B being equal to , A, + , B, . The addition principle can be extended to several sets. If S_1, S_2,\ldots, S_n are pairwise disjoint sets, then we have:, S_1, +, S_2, +\cdots+, S_, = , S_1 \cup S_2 \cup \cdots \cup S_n, . This statement can be proven from the addition principle by induction on ''n''. Simple example A p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discrete Mathematics
Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continuous functions). Objects studied in discrete mathematics include integers, Graph (discrete mathematics), graphs, and Statement (logic), statements in Mathematical logic, logic. By contrast, discrete mathematics excludes topics in "continuous mathematics" such as real numbers, calculus or Euclidean geometry. Discrete objects can often be enumeration, enumerated by integers; more formally, discrete mathematics has been characterized as the branch of mathematics dealing with countable sets (finite sets or sets with the same cardinality as the natural numbers). However, there is no exact definition of the term "discrete mathematics". The set of objects studied in discrete mathematics can be finite or infinite. The term finite mathematics is sometime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
