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Discrete Math Textbook Recommendations?
JonnyRo88 asks: "I am an undergraduate CS major at the University of Central Florida. I took a Discrete Math course this past semester and had a VERY difficult time with the text book the class used: 'Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics' by R. Grimaldi. I do not attribute my difficulties to the book itself, rather I just feel that my learning style is incompatible with the way this book is laid out. I'm sure that others have had similar experiences where they could just not -click- with a book. Like many people I know I tend to learn almost all of the class material from the book. I learn really well from books that focus heavily on examples and explanations on how those examples work. I would love to hear what Slashdot readers consider their most useful Discrete Math textbook. Most interesting are books that have very good discussions on the basic strategies of proofs. I am currently preparing to take an exam that the department requires all CS majors take before they can move to higher level classes, it will test me on my knowledge of discrete math, specifically proofs (by induction, disproof by contradiction, direct proof, recursive definitions, etc)."
the following are very good books on proof and discrete math. Some of the titles are whimsical, but they are not toy books, they are very valuable.
"How To Prove It", "How To Solve It", "Induction and Analogy in Mathematics", and "Patterns of Plausible Inference".
However, it seems you are looking for a book to cram for a test in discrete math. Good luck, not going to find one. More so than any of the lower mathematics, discrete is the beginnings of higher logical analyisys, and you can not really 'cram' it. You have to really read the work, and really work the problems. It has to become part of you.
There seems to be this trend to blame difficulty in learning a subject on the books or the teachers. There are many, many things in the world that you are not smart enough to do; you need to accept this, and figure out what problems you can deal with.
I am not batman, I am not Johan Sebastian Bach, and I am not Richard Feynman, I have accepted this; perhaps you are not capable of Discrete Mathematics. If not, you need to leave CS, and go get in MIS or something, you will be happier.
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
I did a lot of math tutoring in college, and I noticed that all of the discrete books were absolutely god-awful basically just TeX documents with covers, with the exception of one: Kenneth Rosen's "Discrete Mathematics and its Applications". Best. Discrete Book. Ever.
As far as I know, this is the standard text at many colleges. Rosen's approach is mathematically rigorous yet practical at the same time. .
This was also the book from which I first discovered Fermat's Last Theorem, so it is not the typical dry textbook that we all know about.
Walmart sells it for less than Amazon
Discrete mathematics. Makes me want to paraphrase Lazarus Long...
"Math is not necessarily something to be ashamed of--but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."
"A mathematician who calculates in public may have other nasty habits."
and my personal addition, a variation on Clarke's Law, "Any sufficiently advanced mathematics is indistinguishable from surrealism"
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