Why Discrete Math Is Important
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Why Discrete Math Is Important
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Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#2I love discrete math, it seems so much cleaner in general. I wish there were more reformulations of calculus, other numerical methods into discrete maths.
I think Knuth’s concrete mathematics might have been an attempt at this, but I’ve never found time to dig into it in depth. Perhaps I should try again...
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#3I literally just stopped working on my discreet math homework tonight before loading HN and seeing this article.
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#4I have to admit, being a hybrid math/csci student, I never understood the place of discrete math in mathematics or computer science. It always seemed like a mish-mash of different topics I'd studied in algebra->geometry->calc (including mv calc, linear algebra, diff eq, and series and sequences)->real analysis. This article is a bit too brief to properly place it (at least I still don't see it), could someone provide some proper context for discrete mathematics that fits into the mold of the standard maths sequence?
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#5I have to admit, being a hybrid math/csci student, I never understood the place of discrete math in mathematics or computer science. It always seemed like a mish-mash of different topics I'd studied in algebra->geometry->calc (including mv calc, linear algebra, diff eq, and series and sequences)->real analysis. This article is a bit too brief to properly place it (at least I still don't see it), could someone provide…
It doesn't. In my experience, "Discrete Math" is not offered as a math class, but rather as a computer class. In effect, it is the "math for computer science majors" class.
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#6I love discrete math, it seems so much cleaner in general. I wish there were more reformulations of calculus, other numerical methods into discrete maths. I think Knuth’s concrete mathematics might have been an attempt at this, but I’ve never found time to dig into it in depth. Perhaps I should try again...
What you're looking for probably either already exists, or doesn't make any sense, depending on how you clear up the ambiguities in what you've said.
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#7I have to admit, being a hybrid math/csci student, I never understood the place of discrete math in mathematics or computer science. It always seemed like a mish-mash of different topics I'd studied in algebra->geometry->calc (including mv calc, linear algebra, diff eq, and series and sequences)->real analysis. This article is a bit too brief to properly place it (at least I still don't see it), could someone provide…
Discrete math in my school is mostly about combinatorics, but also graph theory, trees, and things like that. It doesn’t really fit into the standard math sequence IMO. The standard math sequence is essentially single-variable calculus -> multi-variable calculus -> linear algebra and differential equations -> real analysis. Note that all of the above fields essentially operate on continuous things like the real numbers.
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#8I love discrete math, it seems so much cleaner in general. I wish there were more reformulations of calculus, other numerical methods into discrete maths. I think Knuth’s concrete mathematics might have been an attempt at this, but I’ve never found time to dig into it in depth. Perhaps I should try again...
In some sense, don't the modern formulations of real analysis, etc. already start from as close to discrete maths as you can get (set theory)?
Sets -> Naturals -> Rationals -> Reals
I don't understand how you could reformulate study of continuous structures into discrete math in any sense other than the above.
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#9I love discrete math, it seems so much cleaner in general. I wish there were more reformulations of calculus, other numerical methods into discrete maths. I think Knuth’s concrete mathematics might have been an attempt at this, but I’ve never found time to dig into it in depth. Perhaps I should try again...
I loved Knuth’s concrete mathematics too. But I don’t think it is an attempt at reformulating calculus into the discrete math framework. Instead in many places in concrete math, knowledge of calculus is assumed, especially in later chapters about generating functions etc.
Re: Why Discrete Math Is Important
#10I have to admit, being a hybrid math/csci student, I never understood the place of discrete math in mathematics or computer science. It always seemed like a mish-mash of different topics I'd studied in algebra->geometry->calc (including mv calc, linear algebra, diff eq, and series and sequences)->real analysis. This article is a bit too brief to properly place it (at least I still don't see it), could someone provide…
A survey "Discrete Mathematics" course is definitely a mishmash. But every topic in discrete mathematics is rich enough to study in it's own 4 credit 1 quarter undergraduate course: Set Theory, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Formal Logic, etc.