TOPOLOGICAL COMBINATORICS

Course Description

Two thieves have stolen a valuable necklace made of gems of several kinds. They want to divide the necklace so that each gets the same number of each kind of gem. How many cuts do they have to make?

In this course you'll learn the answer to this and other combinatorial questions and how algebraic topology is used in the proof.

Required Text

Jiří Matoušek, Using the Borsuk–Ulam Theorem Springer