Discrete Mathematics: An Open Introduction

by Oscar Levin

Note, this is the corrected Fall 2015 edition. A new, much improved (and cheaper) 2nd edition is now available. This gentle introduction to discrete mathematics is written for first and second year math majors, especially those who intend to teach. The text began as a set of lecture notes for the discrete mathematics course at the University of Northern Colorado. This course serves both as an introduction to topics in discrete math and as the "introduction to proof" course for math majors. The course is usually taught with a large amount of student inquiry, and this text is written to help facilitate this. Four main topics are counting, sequences, logic, and graph theory. Along the way proofs are introduced, including proofs by contradiction, proofs by induction, and combinatorial proofs. The book contains 299 exercises, all with solutions (or at least a hint), as well as 45 additional more involved problems suitable for homework. There are also Investigate! problems throughout the text to support active, inquiry based learning. While there are many fine discrete math textbooks available, this text has the following

Genres: Mathematics, Computer Science, Textbooks, Science

296 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2015

Reviews

[Theofanis Despoudis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A easy to digest book about discrete maths.

[Khizar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Its just an horrible math book. The author doesn't clearly explain the math logic well.

[Oleg Dats · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, concrete, visual. Nice tasks for practicing.

[Iurii Mednikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy to understand (if it is applicable to math books at all) textbook that gives you a gentle introduction to essential topics of discrete math. I had an impression that the book was written especially for students that struggle with more traditional discrete math textbooks and I am grateful to the author for such intention.

I used this book as my primary reading, when I failed my discrete math course for the first attempt. The book is best to be utilized with the youtube course from Dr. Trefor Bazett, as it gives you additional details as well practice after you got core principles explained.

As always in math, you have to practice a lot and you cannot expect that one magic book will give you all required language to get your passing grade. But this humble manuscript gives you a solid introduction to the subject and after completing it, you could continue with more advanced readings and courses.

Overall, if you are a CS major, this book could help you a lot with discrete mathematics. Also, this book is available for free online, so you will not lost anything if you decide to give it a try.

Highly recommended.

[Robert E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The language of the author lacks rigor. His attempt to make the text user friendly actually leads to confusion which requires the reader to work harder than necessary to figure things out. And the proof-reading of the text was lackadaisical. The typos and misstatements create a lack of confidence in the text. On the other hand, the on-line version has many exercises with instant feedback. Doing these exercises is where the learning occurs, and that aspect of the text is outstanding!

[Tareef Mando · Rating 5 out of 5]

درست هذا الكتاب كمقرر في كورس MATH 1302

الرياضيات المتقطعة هي الرياضيات التي تتعامل مع البنى الرياضية المتقطعة. المواضيع التي درسناها تناولت

نظرية العد، كيف يمكن عدّ الأشياء في مجموعة ما
المتواليات، وكيف يمكن كتابة صيغة نهائية وصيغة تكرارية لتمثيل المتواليات
المنطق الرياضي، وكيفية الحكم على الجمل بالصواب والخطأ
نظرية المخططات ونظرية الأعداد

أسلوب الكتاب ممتع وبسيط. لكنه لم يكن كافيا طوال الوقت وكان يتوجب القراءة والبحث في مصادر خارجية

[Calvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was explained very clearly, and it wasn’t challenging (in a good way, since this should be a starter book for discrete maths). Thoroughly enjoyed it, and it didn’t take too long either. Only graph theory was completely new but that too wasn’t that bad at all. I think I slacked off at that chapter though.

Schedule:
Chapter 0 - 1 day
Chapter 1 - 2 days
Chapter 2 - 1 day
Chapter 3 - 1 day
Chapter 4 - 4 days
Chapter 5 - 1 day