SYLLABUS

MATH 421 Combinatorics Fall, 2017

Instructor: Ivan C. Sterling, 177 SH, (240-431-8185), isterling@smcm.edu.

Office Hours: TBA, and by appointment

Book: Foundations of Combinatorics with Applications, Bender & Williamson

(Free Online)

Self-Paced Option: You may choose to take the course self-paced. If you are interested in this option let me know.

Tests and Grades: There will be four exams (worth 80% of your course grade, 20% each). One of the four exams will be the non-comprehensive final. Homework will be part of your grade (worth 20%). The homework will be collected at the beginning of class on the day it’s due. Late homework will not be accepted. After it is collected some of the homework problems will be selected for grading. The exam problems will be the same or similar to those in the homework and the examples worked in class.

Dates for the exams: Fridays 9/22, 10/20, 11/17; Final: T 12/12 7-9:15

Grading-roughly: 90-100% A,A- 80-90 B+,B,B- 70-80 C+,C,C 60-70 D+,D <60 F

At the completion of MATH 421, students will be able to use combinatorial counting formulas, including combinations and permutations as demonstrated by solving combinatorial counting problems.

At the completion of MATH 421, students will be able to classify graphs with their essential properties as demonstrated by constructing examples of graphs with different properties and writing elementary graph theory proofs .

At the completion of MATH 421, students will be able to formulate rigorous mathematical arguments as demonstrated by creating formal writen mathematical proofs.

At the completion of MATH 421, students will be able to solve challenging problems in combinatorics as demonstrated by constructing rigorous combinatorial proofs.