Mathematical Sciences - Colloquium

Professor Herbert S. Wilf
Thomas A. Scott Professor of Mathematics
University of Pennsylvania

A Combinatorialist Counts the Rational Numbers

We show that there is an (amazing!) integer valued function f(n) (n=0,1,2,...) such that 
(a) the sequence f(0)/f(1), f(1)/f(2), f(2)/f(3), ... consists of all of the positive rational numbers, each occurring once and     only once, and 
(b) f(n) and f(n+1) are always relatively prime, so each rational occurs in part (a) in reduced form, and 
(c) the function f(n) actually counts something of combinatorial interest.


Thursday, 6 September 2001
4:10 p.m. in James E Todd Building CE 203-204
Reception at 3:30 p.m. CE 204

This talk is part of The Big Sky Conference, sponsored by the National Science Foundation 
and the Department of Mathematical Sciences. 


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