Enumerative Combinatorics
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Enumerative Combinatorics
Enumerative combinatorics is an area of combinatorics that deals with the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed. Two examples of this type of problem are counting combinations and counting permutations. More generally, given an infinite collection of finite sets ''S''''i'' indexed by the natural numbers, enumerative combinatorics seeks to describe a ''counting function'' which counts the number of objects in ''S''''n'' for each ''n''. Although counting the number of elements in a set is a rather broad mathematical problem, many of the problems that arise in applications have a relatively simple combinatorial description. The twelvefold way provides a unified framework for counting permutations, combinations and partitions. The simplest such functions are '' closed formulas'', which can be expressed as a composition of elementary functions such as factorials, powers, and so on. For instance, as shown below, the number of different possible orderings of a deck o ...
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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 ...
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Binomial Coefficient
In mathematics, the binomial coefficients are the positive integers that occur as coefficients in the binomial theorem. Commonly, a binomial coefficient is indexed by a pair of integers and is written \tbinom. It is the coefficient of the term in the polynomial expansion of the binomial power ; this coefficient can be computed by the multiplicative formula : \binom nk = \frac, which using factorial notation can be compactly expressed as : \binom = \frac. For example, the fourth power of is : \begin (1 + x)^4 &= \tbinom x^0 + \tbinom x^1 + \tbinom x^2 + \tbinom x^3 + \tbinom x^4 \\ &= 1 + 4x + 6 x^2 + 4x^3 + x^4, \end and the binomial coefficient \tbinom =\tfrac = \tfrac = 6 is the coefficient of the term. Arranging the numbers \tbinom, \tbinom, \ldots, \tbinom in successive rows for gives a triangular array called Pascal's triangle, satisfying the recurrence relation : \binom = \binom + \binom . The binomial coefficients occur in many areas of mathematics, and espe ...
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Binomial Theorem
In elementary algebra, the binomial theorem (or binomial expansion) describes the algebraic expansion of powers of a binomial. According to the theorem, the power expands into a polynomial with terms of the form , where the exponents and are nonnegative integers satisfying and the coefficient of each term is a specific positive integer depending on and . For example, for , (x+y)^4 = x^4 + 4 x^3y + 6 x^2 y^2 + 4 x y^3 + y^4. The coefficient in each term is known as the binomial coefficient or (the two have the same value). These coefficients for varying and can be arranged to form Pascal's triangle. These numbers also occur in combinatorics, where gives the number of different combinations (i.e. subsets) of elements that can be chosen from an -element set. Therefore is usually pronounced as " choose ". Statement According to the theorem, the expansion of any nonnegative integer power of the binomial is a sum of the form (x+y)^n = x^n y^0 + x^ y^1 + x^ y^ ...
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Square Root
In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that y^2 = x; in other words, a number whose ''square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or y \cdot y) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16 because 4^2 = (-4)^2 = 16. Every nonnegative real number has a unique nonnegative square root, called the ''principal square root'' or simply ''the square root'' (with a definite article, see below), which is denoted by \sqrt, where the symbol "\sqrt" is called the '' radical sign'' or ''radix''. For example, to express the fact that the principal square root of 9 is 3, we write \sqrt = 3. The term (or number) whose square root is being considered is known as the ''radicand''. The radicand is the number or expression underneath the radical sign, in this case, 9. For non-negative , the principal square root can also be written in exponent notation, as x^. Every positive number has two square roots: \sqrt (which is positive) and -\sqrt (which i ...
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Cycle (graph Theory)
In graph theory, a cycle in a graph is a non-empty trail in which only the first and last vertices are equal. A directed cycle in a directed graph is a non-empty directed trail in which only the first and last vertices are equal. A graph without cycles is called an ''acyclic graph''. A directed graph without directed cycles is called a '' directed acyclic graph''. A connected graph without cycles is called a ''tree''. Definitions Circuit and cycle * A circuit is a non-empty trail in which the first and last vertices are equal (''closed trail''). : Let be a graph. A circuit is a non-empty trail with a vertex sequence . * A cycle or simple circuit is a circuit in which only the first and last vertices are equal. * ''n'' is called the length of the circuit resp. length of the cycle. Directed circuit and directed cycle * A directed circuit is a non-empty directed trail in which the first and last vertices are equal (''closed directed trail''). : Let be a directed grap ...
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Dyck Path
The Catalan numbers are a sequence of natural numbers that occur in various counting problems, often involving recursively defined objects. They are named after Eugène Catalan, though they were previously discovered in the 1730s by Minggatu. The -th Catalan number can be expressed directly in terms of the central binomial coefficients by :C_n = \frac = \frac \qquad\textn\ge 0. The first Catalan numbers for are : . Properties An alternative expression for is :C_n = - for n\ge 0\,, which is equivalent to the expression given above because \tbinom=\tfrac\tbinomn. This expression shows that is an integer, which is not immediately obvious from the first formula given. This expression forms the basis for a proof of the correctness of the formula. Another alternative expression is :C_n = \frac \,, which can be directly interpreted in terms of the cycle lemma; see below. The Catalan numbers satisfy the recurrence relations :C_0 = 1 \quad \text \quad C_=\sum_^C_C_\qu ...
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Binary Tree
In computer science, a binary tree is a tree data structure in which each node has at most two children, referred to as the ''left child'' and the ''right child''. That is, it is a ''k''-ary tree with . A recursive definition using set theory is that a binary tree is a triple , where ''L'' and ''R'' are binary trees or the empty set and ''S'' is a singleton (a single–element set) containing the root. From a graph theory perspective, binary trees as defined here are arborescences. A binary tree may thus be also called a bifurcating arborescence, a term which appears in some early programming books before the modern computer science terminology prevailed. It is also possible to interpret a binary tree as an undirected, rather than directed graph, in which case a binary tree is an ordered, rooted tree. Some authors use rooted binary tree instead of ''binary tree'' to emphasize the fact that the tree is rooted, but as defined above, a binary tree is always rooted. In ma ...
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Tree (graph Theory)
In graph theory, a tree is an undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by path, or equivalently a connected acyclic undirected graph. A forest is an undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by path, or equivalently an acyclic undirected graph, or equivalently a disjoint union of trees. A directed tree, oriented tree,See .See . polytree,See . or singly connected networkSee . is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) whose underlying undirected graph is a tree. A polyforest (or directed forest or oriented forest) is a directed acyclic graph whose underlying undirected graph is a forest. The various kinds of data structures referred to as trees in computer science have underlying graphs that are trees in graph theory, although such data structures are generally rooted trees. A rooted tree may be directed, called a directed rooted tree, either making all its edges point away from the root—in which case it is called an arborescence or out-tree� ...
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Sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called the ''length'' of the sequence. Unlike a set, the same elements can appear multiple times at different positions in a sequence, and unlike a set, the order does matter. Formally, a sequence can be defined as a function from natural numbers (the positions of elements in the sequence) to the elements at each position. The notion of a sequence can be generalized to an indexed family, defined as a function from an ''arbitrary'' index set. For example, (M, A, R, Y) is a sequence of letters with the letter "M" first and "Y" last. This sequence differs from (A, R, M, Y). Also, the sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8), which contains the number 1 at two different positions, is a valid sequence. Sequences can be '' finite'', as in these examples, or '' ...
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Cartesian Product
In mathematics, specifically set theory, the Cartesian product of two sets and , denoted , is the set of all ordered pairs where is an element of and is an element of . In terms of set-builder notation, that is A\times B = \. A table can be created by taking the Cartesian product of a set of rows and a set of columns. If the Cartesian product is taken, the cells of the table contain ordered pairs of the form . One can similarly define the Cartesian product of sets, also known as an -fold Cartesian product, which can be represented by an -dimensional array, where each element is an -tuple. An ordered pair is a 2-tuple or couple. More generally still, one can define the Cartesian product of an indexed family of sets. The Cartesian product is named after René Descartes, whose formulation of analytic geometry gave rise to the concept, which is further generalized in terms of direct product. Set-theoretic definition A rigorous definition of the Cartesian product re ...
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Disjoint Union
In mathematics, the disjoint union (or discriminated union) A \sqcup B of the sets and is the set formed from the elements of and labelled (indexed) with the name of the set from which they come. So, an element belonging to both and appears twice in the disjoint union, with two different labels. A disjoint union of an indexed family of sets (A_i : i\in I) is a set A, often denoted by \bigsqcup_ A_i, with an injective function, injection of each A_i into A, such that the image (mathematics), images of these injections form a Partition (set theory), partition of A (that is, each element of A belongs to exactly one of these images). A disjoint union of a family of pairwise disjoint sets is their Union (set theory), union. In category theory, the disjoint union is the coproduct of the category of sets, and thus defined up to a bijection. In this context, the notation \coprod_ A_i is often used. The disjoint union of two sets A and B is written with infix notation as A \sq ...
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