Pearls of Discrete Mathematics presents methods for solving counting problems and other types of problems that involve discrete structures. Through intriguing examples, problems, theorems, and proofs, the book illustrates the relationship of these structures to algebra, geometry, number theory, and combinatorics. --from publisher description.

This gradual, systematic introduction to the main concepts of combinatorics is the ideal text for advanced undergraduate and early graduate courses in this subject. Each of the book's three sections - Existence, Enumeration, and Construction - begins with a simply stated, first principle, which is then developed step by step until it leads to one of the three major achievements of combinatorics: Van der Waerden's theorem on arithmetic progressions,...