MTH210	Textbooks and References

Required Text:

Discrete Mathematics with Applications (3rd Ed.) by Susanna S. Epp
PWS Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-534-35945-0

The 3rd edition is very new, so it still contains mistakes. Known mistakes are listed in the Errata.

Recommended Reading:

How to Study Mathematics (Effective Study Strategies for College and University Students) by Peter Schiavone
Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-906108-8

Further Reading

These books are all accessible to the layman. They have varying degrees of relevancy to the course, but they are all good (and inexpensive). All are available in paperback.

• An excellent introduction to logic, metamathematics and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, for the layman by one of the leading researchers in artificial intelligence. Read it!

  Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R. Hofstadter
  Random House, ISBN 0-394-74502-7

• The story of a 350 year quest to solve the "Holy Grail of mathematics", Fermat's last theorem. This is a fascinating book that also gives a good overview of the history of number theory (and mathematics) from the greeks to now. This book does not require much mathematical knowledge and strangely enough is very easy to read and very hard to put down.

  Fermat's Enigma, by Simon Singh
  Penguin Books, ISBN 014-02-68693

• Simon Singh's second book is as fascinating as the first one and focuses on a mathematical topic of special interest to computer scientists, cryptography. It gives a history of the science of codes, a never-ending battle between code makers and code breakers (the code makers currently have the upper hand, but you never know...) The chapters on the Enigma machine, a mechanical encryption device used by the Germans in the second world war and broken by the British towards the middle of the war is spellbinding.

  The Code Book, by Simon Singh
  

• How complex systems evolve from simple situations.

  Complexification by John L. Casti
  Harper Collins, ISBN 0-06-016888-9

• Nothing to do with mathematics (well, it was written by a mathematician), but interesting stuff.

  Paradigms Lost by John L. Casti
  Avon, ISBN 0-380-71165-6

• Some fun mathematics, including non-Euclidean geometry, cryptography and fractals.

  The Nature and Power of Mathematics by Donald M. Davis
  Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-08783-0

• A good concise history of mathematics.
  

  Makers of Mathematics by Stuart Hollingdale
  Penguin