Generating functions Generating functions are one of the most surprising, useful, and clever inventions in discrete math. Roughly speaking, generating functions transform problems about se- quences into problems about functions. This is great because weve got piles of mathe- matical machinery for manipulating functions. Thanks to generating functions, we can

We realize everyone has been working pretty hard this term, and were considering Warding some prizes for truly exceptional coursework. Here are some possible categories Best Administrative Critique We asserted that the quiz was closed-book. On the cover

In this example, the domain is the set fa,b, c, d, el and the range is the set Y= (1, 2, 3, 4, 5/. Related elements are joined by an arrow. This relation is a function because every element on the left is related to exactly one element on the right. In graph-theoretic

1 Introduction normally, a graph is a bunch of dots connected by lines. Here is an example of a graph

1 Coloring Graphs Each term, the MIT Schedules Office must assign a time slot for each final exam. This is not easy, because some students are taking several classes with finals, and a student can take only one test during a particular time slot. The Schedules Office wants to avoid all conflicts, but to make the exam period as short as possible

Number Theory I Number theory is the study of the integers. Number theory is right at the core of math ematics; even Ug the Caveman surely had some grasp of the integers- at least the posi tive ones. In fact, the integers are so elementary that one might ask, What's to study?

1 Unstacking Here is another wildly fun 6.042 game that's surely about to sweep the nation! You begin with a stack of n boxes. Then you make a sequence of moves. In each move, you divide one stack of boxes into two nonempty stacks. The game ends when you have n stacks, each containing a single box You earn points for each move; in particular, if you divide one stack of height a b into two stacks with heights a and b, then you score

It's really sort of amazing that people manage to communicate in the English language Here are some typical sentences: 1. You may have cake or you may have ice cream 2. If pigs can fly, then you can understand the Chernoff bound 3. If you can solve any problem we come up with then you get an a for the course. 4. Every American has a dream What precisely do these sentences mean? Can you have both cake and ice cream or must you choose just one desert? If the second sentence is true, then is the Chernoff bound incomprehensible? If you can solve some problems we come up with but not all, then do you get an a for the course? And can you still get an a even if you cant solve any of the problems? Does the last sentence imply that all Americans have the same dream or might

1 Strong Induction Recall the principle of strong induction: Principle of Strong Induction. Let(n) be a predicate. If ·P() is true,and for all n, P(O)A P(1)...A P(n) implies P(n+1), then P() is true for all n E N. As an example, let's derive the fundamental theorem of arithmetic

Random walks 1 Random walks a drunkard stumbles out of a bar staggers one step to the right, with a canal lies y steps to his right. Thi I equal p second, he either staggers one step to the left or probability. His home lies r steps to his left, and everal natural questions, including 1. What is the probability that the drunkard arrives safely at home instead of falling into the canal? 2. What is the expected duration of his journey however it ends? The drunkard's meandering path is called a random walk. Random walks are an im- portant subject, because they can model such a wide array of phenomena. For example