Discrete Mathematics
Abstract
The purpose of the present work is to provide short and supple teaching notes for a 30 hours introductory course on elementary Enumerative Algebraic Combinatorics. We fully adopt the Rota way. The themes are organized into a suitable sequence that allows us to derive any result from the preceding ones by elementary processes. Definitions of combinatorial coefficients are just by their combinatorial meaning. The derivation techniques of formulae/results are founded upon constructions and two general and elementary principles/methods: - The bad element method (for recursive formulae). As the reader should recognize, the bad element method might be regarded as a combinatorial companion of the idea of conditional probability. - The overcounting principle (for close form formulae). Therefore, no computation is required in proofs: computation formulae are byproducts of combinatorial constructions. We tried to provide a self-contained presentation: the only prerequisite is standard high school mathematics. We limited ourselves to the combinatorial point of view: we invite the reader to draw the (obvious) probabilistic interpretations.