Translations in Combinatorics

Authors

  • Pavel Šalom Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague
  • Michal Rolínek Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague

Abstract

The article exhibits several problems from a currently developed teaching material on high-school combinatorics. Its philosophy is to enhance combinatorial thinking by giving problems prior to explaining the concepts and introducing the terminology. The article focuses on searching for an underlying theme between problems with different wordings but the same combinatorial idea. We essentially „translate“ one problem to another. We use translations to show why binomial coefficients appear in Pascal's triangle, to give a combinatorial proof of the Binomial Theorem, or to compute the sum 12 + 22 + ... + n2. All that with virtually no „computation” involved.

Published

2015-05-01

How to Cite

Šalom, P., & Rolínek, M. (2015). Translations in Combinatorics. MATHEMATICS–PHYSICS–INFORMATICS, 24(3), 171–176. Retrieved from https://mfi.upol.cz/index.php/mfi/article/view/204

Issue

Section

Mathematics