Customer Reviews

Discrete Mathematics With Applications

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is a neat, complete text. The author is especially sensitive to the needs of the beginner in discrete maths who needs to get used to abstract concepts. This transition is handled very well. There is enough explanation to make you understand what is going on behind the mathematical symbols and at the same time it is not wordy. Despite this simplicity in the teaching approach, the author is able to take the reader from the elementary to quite advanced levels in each topic. There are interesting applications to the field of computer science and programming.

The exercises are designed to test your understanding and a few challenge problems are thrown in. This type of accessible difficulty in the problems builds your confidence. The solutions are quite elaborate and therefore make the book more useful.

On the whole a good, self contained book written such that you will understand each page and concept if you have a reasonable attention span. The author has made it as easy as possible for you.

Please note I have reviewed the first edition of this book as I found this edition rather expensive.

I just used this text for a discrete math course. Most of us were computer science majors and many of them struggled with the math and with the text. This is the audience the text is written for and the author tries to explain everything assuming very little about the student's prior knowledge. This math is obviously hard for non-math majors. If they need to learn it, I haven't seen any Discrete Math text that does a better job for this group.

The book is too simple and wordy for math majors, very strong computer science students and future math teachers. A better approach might be a book like D. Smith's A Transition to Advanced Mathematics for logic, sets, counting, mathematical induction, relations, and functions, combined with Chartrand's Introductory Graph Theory.

One could use this book at the high school level for a senior level discrete math course for strong students preparing for computer science as an alternative to taking pre-calculus.

This is a solid math book that covers every topic you'll need to know in the area. Make no mistake this is not a kid's book, and one must know how to study and read math in order to utilize it to the full potential. Many people that rate math books poorly do so because they have not developed adequate skills in studying math. If you take your time, work out the examples with the book, read and read again all of the concepts are about as clear as they can come from a math book. Most teachers/professors prefer to use their own examples, because that's how they abstract the problem in their own mind. It's easier to create a problem, than sit down and observe a premade example. Aside from some slightly screwy lesson organization it is a solid book. If you have patience, and try to do more than briefly skim over a lesson to understand it this book will be more than adequate for the topic.

I honestly can't see how you'd make a book explaining such topics as prime numbers and set theory any clearer than this one. I consider this to be a high quality book. It's easy to understand and reference. Its one drawback is that it covers only a limited number of topics, and none of them are heavy duty. If I found a book that explained graduate level math as well as this one explains undergraduate math, I'd consider it to be gold.

This book is well written, it contains good examples, and excellent exposition. This was my introduction to mathematical proofs, and after studying it well, I was able to approach more advanced courses, such as advanced calculus and modern algebra with a clear view of how to approach problems where a mathematical proof is needed. I highly recommend this book to undergraduate math majors.

This is one of the best undergraduate math textbooks I have ever read. The concepts and examples provided by the author are very clear. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn Discrete Math.

We used this book a few years ago in school for discrete maths. I took a look at the size of the book and decided it was hazardous to my health to carry this book for the whole semester. What I did was I listened in class and did homework problems at home without reading a single word from the text. Surprisingly, I did very well in the class. My point is Epps is so wordy that it is rather dull to try to understand a concept by reading the text word by word. It's important for an author at this level to keep the text crisp enough so that the reader can have fun reading it. In my humble opinion professors should use a more concise book that's fun to read and physically safe to carry around.

This is possibly the best written textbook that I have EVER seen. It is clear, to the point, and even includes interesting sidebars that help clarify the topic and hold the reader's attention. It seemed that every time I had a question about something that was covered, Ms. Epp answered it in the very next sentence. The forethought and planning put into this book is tremendous. If you are looking for an introduction to the subject of Discrete Mathematics, look no further. Bravo.

I got this book to supplement the course book required for my class. This one has about as much text, but covers fewer things. It is very clear and precise, with lots of examples.

This was the required textbook for my 100-level CIS discrete mathematics course, and was simply the best math text I've ever been forced to read. The examples were, at times, even more clear than my professor's explanations, and made the painful prospect of learning math much more palatable.

The examples and explanations are clear, unburdened, and progresses nicely in difficulty levels. The lone drawback is that we routinely discovered blatantly incorrect answers in the professor's solutions-book while going over problems in class. A minor stain upon this most impressive (and almost enjoyable)work.