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Title

Using Combinatorica/Mathematica for Student Projects in Random Graph Theory
Authors

Thomas J. Pfaff
Michele Zaret
Journal / Anthology

PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies
Year: 2006
Volume: 16
Issue: 4
Description

We give an example of a student project that experimentally explores a topic in random graph theory. We use the Combinatorica package in Mathematica to estimate the minimum number of edges needed in a random graph to have a 50 percent chance that the graph is connected. We provide the Mathematica code and compare it to the known theoretical result.
Subjects

*Education > College
*Mathematics > Discrete Mathematics > Graph Theory
Keywords

Combinatorica, Excel, Mathematica, random graph