Combinatorics and Probability

Suppose we need to count certain objects. Can we do anything better than just list all the objects? Do we need to create a list all phone numbers to check whether there are enough phone numbers for everyone? Is there a way to tell whether our algorithm will run in a reasonable time before implementing and actually running it? All these questions are addressed by a mathematical field called Combinatorics. In this module we will give an introduction to this field that will help us to answer basic versions of the above questions.

In how many ways one can select a team of five students out of ten students? What is the number of non-negative integers with at five digits whose digits are decreasing? In how many ways one can get from the bottom left cell to the top right cell of a 5x5 grid, each time going either up or to the right? And why all these three numbers are equal? We'll figure this out in this module!

We have already considered most of the most standard settings in Combinatorics, that allow us to address many counting problems. However, successful application of this knowledge on practice requires considerable experience in this kind of problems. In this module we will address the final standard setting in our course, combinations with repetitions, and then we will gain some experience by discussing various problems in Combinatorics.

The word "probability" is used quite often in the everyday life. However, not always we can speak about probability as some number: for that a mathematical model is needed. What is this mathematical model (probability space)? How to compute probabilities (if the model is given)? How to judge whether the model is adequate? What is conditional probability and Bayes' theorem? How our plausible reasoning can be interpreted in terms of Bayes' theorem? In this module we cover these questions using some simple examples of probability spaces and real life sutiations.