 | |
| Author | Ronald Graham,Donald Knuth, andOren Patashnik |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Mathematics Computer science |
| Publisher | Addison–Wesley |
Publication date | 1994 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 657 pp(Second Edition) |
| ISBN | 0-201-55802-5 |
| OCLC | 29357079 |
| 510 20 | |
| LC Class | QA39.2 .G733 1994 |
Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, byRonald Graham,Donald Knuth, andOren Patashnik, first published in 1989, is a textbook that is widely used in computer-science departments as a substantive but light-hearted treatment of theanalysis of algorithms.
The book provides mathematical knowledge and skills for computer science, especially for theanalysis of algorithms. According to the preface, the topics inConcrete Mathematics are "a blend of CONtinuous and disCRETE mathematics".Calculus is frequently used in the explanations and exercises. The term "concrete mathematics" also denotes a complement to "abstract mathematics".
The book is based on a course begun in 1970 by Knuth atStanford University. The book expands on the material (approximately 100 pages)[1] in the "Mathematical Preliminaries"[2] section of Knuth'sThe Art of Computer Programming. Consequently, some readers use it as an introduction to that series of books.
Concrete Mathematics has an informal and often humorous style. The authors reject what they see as the dry style of most mathematics textbooks. The margins contain "mathematicalgraffiti", comments submitted by the text's first editors: Knuth and Patashnik's students at Stanford.
As with many of Knuth's books, readers are invited to claim areward for any error found in the book—in this case, whether an error is "technically, historically, typographically, orpolitically incorrect".[3]
The book popularized some mathematical notation: theIverson bracket,floor and ceiling functions, andnotation for rising and falling factorials.
Donald Knuth used the first edition ofConcrete Mathematics as a test case for theAMS Euler typeface andConcrete Roman font.[4]