Math 3860 Combinatorics (Fall 2010)

Instructor. Dave Morris (Dave.Morris@uleth.ca), office C572, phone 403-329-2346.
            Office hour during Final Exams: 12:30-1:30pm on Monday, December 13.

Click here for the course outline

Click here for the homework assignments


topic
references from Brualdi's textbook or to download and print
Error-correcting codes
Coding Theory chapter by Kenneth Rosen (213K, 21 pages)
     read to page 83mid (not 78mid-79mid)
HW #1 due Tues, Sept 14

finish reading Rosen
read NY Times article (will discuss in class)
HW #2 due Tues, Sept 21
Partitions
read Introduction to Partitions
HW #3 due Tues, Sept 28
HW #4 due Tues, Oct 5
Ramsey Theory
read Brualdi, pages 15-19
do exercises 1-12 except 2,3,7,9 (not to turn in) before Thursday

Kenney's notes on Ramsey Theory (102K, 6 pages)
     read to page 3mid
Chapter 7 of Bondy-Murty graph theory book(1.5MB, 16 pages)
     read pages 103bot to 107top, especially 104bot to 106mid
HW #5 due Tues, Oct 12

Read proof of Thm 7.6 in Bondy-Murty
HW #6 due Thurs, Oct 14 (not to turn in)
System of Distinct Representatives
start reading Chapter 8 of Brualdi, to end of Section 8.1
HW #7 due Tues, Oct 26

read Brualdi: Section 8.2
do exercises 9, 12, 13, 16-19 before Thursday

read Brualdi: Section 8.4 (skip 8.3)
HW #8 due Tues, Nov 2: (10,11), 20-24, 26
(Ignore the mention of Section 8.3 in Exercise 23.)
Turn in 20* (2 pts)
Combinatorial Designs
read Brualdi: Section 9.1 (and review the theory of finite fields)
do exercises (1-3, 6-9), 15-18 before Thursday

read Brualdi: Section 9.2
HW #9 due Tues, Nov 9: Exercises 19-28,
Turn in 26*
(2 pts)

read Brualdi: start of Section 9.3 (to middle of p. 209)
HW #10 due Tues, Nov 16: Exercises 29-34
Turn in 33* (2 pts)

read Brualdi: the rest of Section 9.3
do exercises 35-40 and 2 additional problems before Thursday
Turn in 35* on Tuesday, November 23 (2 pts)

read and do the SAGE project on BCH codes
Turn in the starred problem by Thursday (5 pts)

read Sections 2.1 and 2.3 of Anderson-Honkala
do HW #12 by Thursday
Turn in 1* on Tuesday, November 30 (2 pts)

read Section 2.10 of Anderson-Honkala
do HW #12.5 by Tuesday

HW #13