Discrete Mathematics with Applications

First I'd like to say that I purchased this book for self study. I studied math in college many years ago, and always got good grades in math. I recently decided to re-study many of my previous courses, this time using the best of the best textbooks for each of the subjects. My original plan was to start with Calculus using both the Apostol and Spivak textbooks. These textbooks are very thorough, and it soon became apparent that there were gaps in my understanding of core concepts in logic, proofs, axioms, set theory, series, and probability. I purchased two very good textbooks in learning and performing proofs, which greatly improved my understanding in logic, set theory and proofs. They did still leave some gaps though, since they assumed I had a very good understanding of core axioms and other mathematical concepts. This is where I began my search for the best book to fill in the gaps, and prepare me with everything I needed for upper level mathematics. This search brought me to Susanna's book. After reading the title of contents, and the user reviews I decided to purchase the book despite it's high cost. I wasn't disappointed, and after completing a good part of the book, I would gladly pay double the price.Not only does the text fill in all the gaps I knew I was missing, it has filled in many I didn't even realize I was missing. The text goes so much more into depth in logic, set theory and proofs than the books on proofs that I originally purchased. She gives you a complete understanding on the different types of mathematical arguments and proofs, so that you will have no problems dissecting and solving almost any type of proof that comes your way.The text goes on to provide a deep understanding of other essential topics including relations, functions, probability, sequence series, and more. I'd highly recommend this book to be read before taking on a calculus course, as it will give students a much more intuitive insight to many topics covered in calc. The text should pose no problems to high school students who have studied algebra and maybe some pre-calc.After completing the topics on proofs, you may find yourself enjoying performing proofs so much, that you may want to purchase one or two books just on on proofs for the sake of having additional problems to work and practice your new skills on.

First, a little background: I'm a computer science graduate school and I never took discrete math, so I used this book to learn the subject on my own. I'm giving this book 5 stars because it has great explanations, lots of practice problems, and it's written in a way where I actually enjoy reading it. By providing lots of practice problems (and the answers) it's relatively easy for me to figure out whether or not I'm getting each concept. Keep in mind this book is EXTREMELY dense (as are most textbooks I suppose), and a single course in discrete math can't cover all the material in this book. I also like the various aside articles in each chapter that give you a relevant story along with the concept you're currently learning. Having used many textbooks over the years in my college classes, I will say that from the perspective of a (graduate) student, this is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it.

This is one of the best math textbooks I've ever had. The explanations are straightforward, and even the difficult concepts can be understood if you take the time to read over a section a few times. It also does a great job of highlighting the really important parts of each chapter. Sometimes the definitions are hard to keep track of because they use terms that were defined just a page ago, but that's not uncommon with math textbooks, and it's not hard to flip back and forth. The examples are useful and the explanations are good. A lot of the examples relate to computer science, which is useful because this course is required for computer science and electrical and computer engineers at my college. It makes it clear why the concepts in the book relate to the majors, and I think it makes it more interesting because the concepts seem more practical.The practice problems are also helpful and interesting, but I would like to have more problems that are similar to each other. This might seem odd, but I think it would be useful because I often find that when there are only one or two similar practice problems, by the time I look at the solutions and figure out how to do them, I don't have another problem to practice. However, this is a minor problem, and the book would be significantly longer if more problems were included. I recommend getting another book with more practice problems.

Item was just as described.

I needed this for a college course in Discrete Math. Some say this isn't a great book but I disagree. The author does a great job getting the reader to try and expand their thinking and solve problems with algorithmic approaches. She has a fondness for fun word puzzles that are more Alice and Wonderland than trains and cash registers. That said, this has been the hardest math subject I've taken on yet, my history including a year of Calculus, and semesters of Multivariable Calc, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra. On many occasions I've looked at a problem and said "That's not possible!" and later, maybe a minute or maybe a week later, I'll come to realize that the answer is as simple as nCr(2,52). I wouldn't recommend teaching yourself Discrete Math at home, I do recommend this book.

Be very careful when buying this book and others used online, The book was listed as "Acceptable" but the binding was almost completely off and quite a few pages were folded in or had a fair amount of ink on them.Other than that, the book itself is alright. The author does try very hard to make the content digestible. This does come at a cost of the content being a little bit verbose and not concise. It becomes difficult going back through the book because you need to flip through multiple "filler" pages before you get to a theorem or reference that you needed.

I bought this for school, and it was a course that I liked, but did struggle a bit with. I found the examples to be extremely helpful, and there were plenty of exercises to help me understand the material. I rarely had to consult the solutions manual, which I bought just in case.

Good book , but it is missing a bit on generating functions