Tag Archives: permutations

Permutation patterns, days 3-5

Posted on 20/06/2015 by Peter Cameron

I never promised to write something every day … Anyway, the conference is now over. The LMS conference wi-fi was just not up to the demands of a conference big enough to fill the Hardy room, so lots of on-line … Continue reading →

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Equivalence relations, 2

Posted on 19/05/2015 by Peter Cameron

I believe, and have said in earlier posts here and here on this blog, that the Equivalence Relation Theorem is the modern pons asinorum, the bridge which you must cross in order to become a mathematician: it is essential to … Continue reading →

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OuLiPo

Posted on 08/01/2015 by Peter Cameron

OuLiPo, or Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (which they translate as “Charity bazaar of potential literature”) were a collection of writers I knew little about until yesterday. I knew a couple of things: Martin Gardner wrote about them, mentioning among other … Continue reading →

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Bijective proofs

Posted on 04/01/2015 by Peter Cameron

A fourth proof Last month I described three proofs of the formula for the number of ways to choose k objects from a set of n, if repetition is allowed and order is not significant; it is the same as … Continue reading →

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Busy times, 4

Posted on 16/05/2014 by Peter Cameron

I meant to finish up the last item with a comment on the relationship between teaching and examining. I have never regarded examining as more than a necessary evil for teachers. So many times, while I was marking the scripts, … Continue reading →

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