The inclusion and exclusion principle in view of number theory

Abstract

The inclusion and exclusion (connection and disconnection) principle is mainly known from combinatorics in solving the combinatorial problem of calculating all permutations of a finite set or other combinatorial problems. Finite sets and Venn diagrams are the standard method of teaching this principle. The paper presents an alternative approach to teaching the inclusion and exclusion principle from the number theory point of view, while presenting several selected application tasks and possible principle implementation into the Matlab computing environment.