Combinatorics is the study of counting. That sounds simple enough, right? You've been counting stuff for years. It turns out that it gets a little more complicated than taking off your shoes when you run out of fingers.
You'll find as you get further into the classroom that this one gets a little more technical than the ones for our Algebra 1 and geometry classes. Don't let that discourage you from getting started. The material in the first couple of chapters is at a relatively fundamental level that any Algebra 2 student should be able to understand.
Like in our other classrooms, I want to give you a feel for the real mathematics without overwhelming you with technical phrasing. To achieve this, I'll present the core ideas in two different versions, side by side. One version will be in the technically correct language of mathematics. The other will be an "English translation".