Counting: The Art of Enumerative Combinatorics

Counting is hard. "e;Counting"e; is short for "e;Enumerative Combinatorics,"e; 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.