MATH2969 Discrete Maths and Graph Theory (advanced)

General Information

This page contains information on the Intermediate Unit of Study MATH2969 Discrete Maths and Graph Theory (advanced).

This unit is offered in Semester 1.

Lecturer(s): Alexander Molev, Bob Howlett

For further information on Intermediate Mathematics and Statistics, refer to the Intermediate Handbook.

You may also view the Faculty Handbook entry for MATH2969 in the central units of study database.

• Credit point value: 6CP.
• Classes per week: Three lectures, one tutorial and practice class.

Email enquiries about MATH2969 may be sent to MATH2969@maths.usyd.edu.au.

Students: Please give your name and SID when emailing us. Anonymous emails will not be replied to.

MATH2069/2969 Resources

There is a separate resources page from which you can download tutorial and practice class questions and solutions, as well as scanned transcripts of the discrete mathematics lectures, not to mention audio recordings of the lectures.

You should visit the resources page at least a couple of times each week.

MATH2069/2969 Online Information Sheet

The first half of the semester will be concerned with Discrete Mathematics.

The second half of the semester will be concerned with Graph Theory.

Lecturers

Discrete Mathematics:

Graph Theory:

Classes

Lectures, practice classes, and quizzes (joint for MATH2069 and MATH2969) will be held each week at the following times in Carslaw 159:

• Monday 2–3 pm,
• Tuesday 3–4 pm,
• Wednesday 2–3 pm,
• Thursday 1–2 pm.

In general, lectures will be held at the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday times and practice classes at the Thursday times. The exceptions to this are in Weeks 5 and 11, when quizzes will be held on the Thursday, and Week 12, when there will be a lecture on the Thursday.

In the practice classes you will work through a sheet of questions relating to the material in the preceding lectures; the solutions will be briefly discussed in the class. These questions will be similar to those in the quizzes. The question sheets are printed at the back of the books of lecture notes (see below), and also available on the web resources page, where the solutions will be posted after each week's class.

Tutorials (one per week) start in Week 2. The tutorial sheets are printed at the back of the books of lecture notes. (They will not be distributed in tutorials.) They are also available on the web resources page, where the solutions will be posted. The tutorials in Week 13 will give you the opportunity to try questions from past exam papers.

Assessment

Your raw mark will be calculated as follows.

• 60%: Exam
• 30%: Class quizzes (two, worth 15% each)
• 10%: Assignment

The end of semester exam will be a single 2-hour examination covering both halves of the unit.

Past papers with solutions (and in some cases comments) will be made available on the web resources page later in the semester.

The two quizzes (the same for MATH2069 and MATH2969) will be held in Weeks 5 and 11, during the Thursday 1–2 pm class times (not in the tutorials). The quizzes will consist of short-answer questions similar to the practice class questions. More information on these quizzes will be posted here closer to the dates.

• Quiz 1 will be held in Carslaw 159 on 5/4/2012, starting at 1:05 pm. It will consist of questions similar to ones from the first four practice classes.

The assignment (different for MATH2069 and MATH2969) will be posted on the web resources page, and will be due on Thursday May 3rd.

Texts and References

The examinable content of the unit is all contained in the books of lecture notes: Topics in Discrete Mathematics by Anthony Henderson and Introduction to Graph Theory by Anthony Henderson. These may be purchased from Kopystop, 55 Mountain Street, Broadway.

Some other reference books, which you may want to consult for additional examples and exercises, are listed on the Acknowledgements pages of the two books of lecture notes.

Course Outline

In the first half, we will study several related areas of discrete mathematics, which have applications throughout pure and applied mathematics, as well as in computer science and other sciences. In the second half, we will restrict our attention to one particular area of discrete mathematics, namely graph theory. We will investigate some of the fundamental results on Eulerian and Hamiltonian graphs, trees, and vertex colourings, among other topics.

The sections expected to be covered in each week's lectures (approximately) are as follows.

Timetable

Last revised 30/03/12

All rooms are in the Carslaw building unless otherwise indicated.