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This is a new edition of a successful textbook ... this revision is particularly welcome ... The text is written in a fluent but rigorous style and should appeal to sixthformers and undergraduates who are alienated by more formal presentations. There are plenty of approachable exercises, ranging from easy riders to establish technique to more challenging problems which introduce new ideas, and a bonus is that all the answers are available on a companion web-site. I can thoroughly recommend this text. (The Mathematical Gazette )
A well known definition says that a textbook is a book such that everybody thinks he can write a better one. Biggs' Discrete Mathematics is an exception - not only for its wide range of topics and its clear organization but notably for its excellent style of explanation. (EMS )
... the ideal choice for introductory courses to discrete mathematicians. (Zentralblatt MATH )
A well known definition says that a textbook is a book such that everybody thinks he can write a better one. Biggs' Discrete Mathematics is an exception - not only for its wide range of topics and its clear organization but notably for its excellent style of explanation. (EMS )
... the ideal choice for introductory courses to discrete mathematicians. (Zentralblatt MATH )
Zentralblatt MATH
"... the ideal choice for introductory courses to discrete mathematicians."
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First Sentence
The following statements are typical of the ones studied by mathematicians. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The following statements are typical of the ones studied by mathematicians. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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5 reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
great book
25 April 2002
Format:Hardcover
Dr. Biggs' book is an excellent introduction to discrete maths--I used it for the first term and part of the second term of his "Introduction to Pure Maths". The book reads the same as he lectures, which, while sometimes creepy (it's like he's talking to you), is a very good thing. It is very well written and explains everything clearly. He has plenty of worked examples to illustrate how to use what he has taught as well as exercises (w/ answers in the back of the book) for students to work out for themselves.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Interesting book
29 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book for my first year at university. It is a good book, clear and concise, and altought I bought a used one (second edition) it was like a new one, so I'm very happy. :)
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Unthorough, Inadequate for Early Learners
16 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback
This was the required text in a course I just took in discrete mathematics, and it is very lacking. The descriptions are not detailed enough for first-time learners of the material. Biggs tries to cover very many topics, and as such, doesn't cover any given topic thoroughly. The book feels like random snapshots of various components of discrete mathematics, but not all of the snapshots are representative of the topics to which they belong.
For one group of chapters, Biggs discusses things which are only really relevant or applicable in computer science (or, at the very least, given a computer). This is to be expected - discrete mathematics and computer science go hand in hand. Unfortunately, though, it does not appear that he is a practicing computer scientist - he omits the names behind some of the famous algorithms, i.e. Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm and Prim's minimum spanning tree algorithm. He ditches the minimum spanning tree problem and proceeds to DFS without discussing Kruskal's algorithm. He also performs heap sort with a min order heap, sorting elements in ascending order, which, as most computer science students should be able to recognize, requirs linear-order extra space in order to copy the final array (as opposed to using a max-order heap, which requires only constant space). He uses a seemingly FORTRAN-based pseudocode, but omits symbols, adds more English words (as if FORTRAN didn't have enough), and uses no comments.
All in all, avoid this book if possible. For introductory-level discrete mathematics, I would recommend Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, which still sits on my shelf and serves as a great quick reference. For introductory-level data structures and algorithms, I would *highly* recommend Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++ (3rd Edition), which has extensive diagrams, examples, analyses, proofs, and even some fully coded implementations to help jump-start readers as they get more comfortable with ADT use (also available for C and Java). However, no book is ever a substitute for going to school :-P.
I hope the Biggs book is never mandatory for any of your classes.
Cheers!
For one group of chapters, Biggs discusses things which are only really relevant or applicable in computer science (or, at the very least, given a computer). This is to be expected - discrete mathematics and computer science go hand in hand. Unfortunately, though, it does not appear that he is a practicing computer scientist - he omits the names behind some of the famous algorithms, i.e. Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm and Prim's minimum spanning tree algorithm. He ditches the minimum spanning tree problem and proceeds to DFS without discussing Kruskal's algorithm. He also performs heap sort with a min order heap, sorting elements in ascending order, which, as most computer science students should be able to recognize, requirs linear-order extra space in order to copy the final array (as opposed to using a max-order heap, which requires only constant space). He uses a seemingly FORTRAN-based pseudocode, but omits symbols, adds more English words (as if FORTRAN didn't have enough), and uses no comments.
All in all, avoid this book if possible. For introductory-level discrete mathematics, I would recommend Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, which still sits on my shelf and serves as a great quick reference. For introductory-level data structures and algorithms, I would *highly* recommend Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++ (3rd Edition), which has extensive diagrams, examples, analyses, proofs, and even some fully coded implementations to help jump-start readers as they get more comfortable with ADT use (also available for C and Java). However, no book is ever a substitute for going to school :-P.
I hope the Biggs book is never mandatory for any of your classes.
Cheers!
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