Combinatorics In The Societal Context

Bohemian Night Reaction Paper Joana Rose Dela Cruz

MATH 141 Student Number: 2015-01985

Last September 26, the Mathematics Division of UPLB, together with the Society of
Applied Mathematics of UPLB, UPLB Mathematical Sciences Society, Society of Math
Majors UPLB, Operations Research Society of the Philippines- UPLB Student Chapter,
and UPLB Actuarial Science Society, held the ”Bohemian Night”, an Acquaintance Party
for students of the BS Applied Mathematics and BS Mathematics degree programs. This
event aims to get the freshmen acquainted among themselves and the upperclassmen with
whom they will be sharing the Math Building with; introduce the Math Division, its con-
stituents and the degree programs it offers; promote camaraderie among the organizations
that stay in the Math Building; and promote camaraderie between the organizations and
the Math Division. On the other hand, Combinatorics, also called Combinatorial Math-
ematics, is the field of Mathematics concerned with problems of selection, arrangement,
and operation within a finite or discrete system. [2, p.1] To put it simply, Combinatorics
is a branch of Mathematics which is about counting. [1, p.1]
Now, with the aforementioned events objectives, how can this be related to Combina-
torics? In my opinion, the objectives and the subject are somewhat related to each other
in terms of their significance and level of difficulty. For some people, interacting with
people whom you are unfamiliar with is difficult. It takes a lot of effort and it is not
easily done. Personally, I prefer creating social networks by befriending one person at
a time. Similarly, in the context of Combinatorial Mathematics, I think that the most
basic technique of counting is counting by hand. However, in the long run and with the
greater number of people to be befriended or with the greater number of things to be
counted, using these techniques will eventually lead to a slow pace or a wastage in time
and effort.
Through the acquaintance night, people were able to widen their circles and socialize with
larger groups of people in such a short span of time. Likewise, by the use of Combina-
torics, people were able to count multiple things using different counting techniques like
Factorials, Combinations, Permutations, and others. Because of these, time was saved
and at the same time, the objectives were met.

References

[1] Combinatorics, 2017.

[2] R.J. Bose. Combinatorial Mathematics, 2013.