What book would you recommend for Discrete Math? Thanks.
+1
A:
TAoCP of course covers a lot of ground.
Bertsimas & Tsitsiklis is a classic for combinatorics/linear optimization. Since the topics of discrete mathematics is so wide I’m not sure that there’s just one definite reference to it.
Konrad Rudolph
2009-05-03 15:42:13
Cover looks very concrete!
cherouvim
2009-05-03 16:12:57
One of my favorite math books. I often work from home, so I have a copy at home and another copy at the office.
John D. Cook
2009-05-03 18:38:47
-1, sorry. I love this book too, but it's probably not a good fit for anyone who has to ask which discrete math books are recommended.
Dave
2009-05-03 21:57:42
+5
A:
My university uses the Rosen book for the Discrete Mathematics courses. I found it to be a decent book, but I also do recommend Concrete Mathematics.
Thomas Owens
2009-05-03 16:11:45
+3
A:
If you are new to Discrete Mathematics then i'll recommend you to go through Discrete Mathematics by Rosen. It is a wonderful book to start with. And if you have already some idea about the subject then you may go for Concrete Mathematics by Knuth. You may find difficulties getting the later one if your foundation is not that strong. My suzession is first go through the Rosen book and then the Knuth Book.
Bad Boy
2009-05-03 17:43:47
+2
A:
I really liked my textbook on Discrete Mathematics.
It's just called Discrete Mathematics by Ensley and Crawley. ISBN: 0-471-47602-1
This text isn't widely known, but it's written very well and is easy to understand. The examples and problem sets really worked for me.
It's very expensive on some sites(Like B&N & even Amazon), I got it from whereismybook.com (Any other competitor site would work as well) for somewhere between $20 and $30.
Aaron
2009-05-06 02:21:26
I'm still early in the book but true that it's well written using a pedagogical approach, though still requires hard work using the problem sets. Already from the early chapters it seems more proper than Rosen's book for stuff like algorithm analysis.
hishadow
2010-10-23 22:38:34
+1
A:
Do you want combinatorics or number theory? (how to count, or clock arithmetic? :-) If the latter, I like Niven & Zuckerman's Introduction to the Theory of Numbers. (I wouldn't buy new, I got it used for under $10)
Jason S
2009-05-07 19:16:37
I am more interested in combinatorics. What would you recommend for that?
Girish
2009-05-07 20:51:17
Hmm, not sure. My academic training is in EE, not software; I sat in on a combinatorics class for a few lectures and didn't like it, so never bothered studying the subject. :-)
Jason S
2009-05-08 02:03:14
+1
A:
Concrete Mathematics by Graham, Knuth and Patashnik is definitively a great choice. It contains topics that are relevant to computer science. For example I've been able to use and apply stuff from every chapter in the book (except the Sterling numbers).
But even more important than the math that the book teaches are the method it teaches. The authors clearly teach how to think about mathematical problems an how to approach them. This helps enormously to solve all those little math problems that one solve constantly in computer science.
Furthermore, the book is quite pleasant to read, with its funny side notes and give some motivation to read the book.
Accipitridae
2009-05-08 03:42:36