Springer Counting: The Art of Enumerative Combinatorics (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

Counting is hard. "Counting" is short for "Enumerative Combinatorics," which certainly doesn't sound easy. This book provides an introduction to discrete mathematics that addresses questions that begin, How many ways are there to... . At the end of the book the reader should be able to answer such nontrivial counting questions as, How many ways are there to stack n poker chips, each of which can be red, white, blue, or green, such that each red chip is adjacent to at least 1 green chip? There are no prerequisites for this course beyond mathematical maturity. The book can be used for a semester course at the sophomore level as introduction to discrete mathematics for mathematics, computer science, and statistics students. The first five chapters can also serve as a basis for a graduate course for in-service teachers.