Vous voulez voir cette page en fran�ais ? Cliquez ici.

Quantity:

More Buying Choices

25 used & new from CDN$ 60.47

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science

See larger image

Share your own customer images

Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science (Hardcover)

by Ronald L. Graham (Author), Donald E. Knuth (Author), Oren Patashnik (Author)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

List Price:	CDN$ 95.99
Price:	CDN$ 60.47 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save:	CDN$ 35.52 (37%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Ordering for Christmas? To ensure delivery by December 24 to Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal, choose FREE Super Saver Shipping at checkout. Read more about holiday shipping.

17 new from CDN$ 60.47 8 used from CDN$ 77.68

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition

by Thomas H. Cormen

3.9 out of 5 stars (44) CDN$ 64.58

Code

by Charles Petzold

4.7 out of 5 stars (36) CDN$ 16.71

Test Driven Development: By Example

by Kent Beck

4.3 out of 5 stars (17) CDN$ 37.79

The Art of Computer Programming Boxed Set (Volumes 1-3)

by Donald E. Knuth

4.4 out of 5 stars (39) CDN$ 125.94

Hacker's Delight

by Henry S. Warren

5.0 out of 5 stars (5) CDN$ 37.79

› Explore similar items

Product Details

Hardcover: 672 pages
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (Mar 10 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0201558025
ISBN-13: 978-0201558029
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 19 x 4.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 1.4 Kg

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #40,215 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#60 in Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Algorithms

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

This book introduces the mathematics that supports advanced computer programming and the analysis of algorithms. The primary aim of its well-known authors is to provide a solid and relevant base of mathematical skills - the skills needed to solve complex problems, to evaluate horrendous sums, and to discover subtle patterns in data. It is an indispensable text and reference not only for computer scientists - the authors themselves rely heavily on it! - but for serious users of mathematics in virtually every discipline. Concrete Mathematics is a blending of CONtinuous and disCRETE mathematics. "More concretely," the authors explain, "it is the controlled manipulation of mathematical formulas, using a collection of techniques for solving problems." The subject matter is primarily an expansion of the Mathematical Preliminaries section in Knuth's classic Art of Computer Programming, but the style of presentation is more leisurely, and individual topics are covered more deeply. Several new topics have been added, and the most significant ideas have been traced to their historical roots. The book includes more than 500 exercises, divided into six categories.Complete answers are provided for all exercises, except research problems, making the book particularly valuable for self-study. Major topics include: *Sums *Recurrences *Integer functions *Elementary number theory *Binomial coefficients *Generating functions *Discrete probability *Asymptotic methods This second edition includes important new material about mechanical summation. In response to the widespread use of the first edition as a reference book, the bibliography and index have also been expanded, and additional nontrivial improvements can be found on almost every page. Readers will appreciate the informal style of Concrete Mathematics. Particularly enjoyable are the marginal graffiti contributed by students who have taken courses based on this material. The authors want to convey not only the importance of the techniques presented, but some of the fun in learning and using them. 0201558025B04062001

Ingram

This book, updated and improved, introduces the mathematics that support advanced computer programming and the analysis of algorithms. The book's primary aim is to provide a solid and relevant base of mathematical skills. It is an indispensable text and reference for computer scientists and serious programmers in virtually every discipline.

See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

algorithms(1)

computer science(1)

math(1)

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

	58% buy the item featured on this page: Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science 4.2 out of 5 stars (21) CDN$ 60.47
	15% buy Introduction to Algorithms, Third Edition CDN$ 65.84
	13% buy Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition 3.9 out of 5 stars (44) CDN$ 64.58
	11% buy Hacker's Delight 5.0 out of 5 stars (5) CDN$ 37.79

Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

21 Reviews

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please Be Discrete, Jul 13 2001

By	Mary P. Campbell "math geek" (Flushing, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What is "concrete" math, as opposed to other types of math? The authors explain that the title comes from the blending of CONtinuous and disCRETE math, two branches of math that many seem to like to keep asunder, though each occurs in the foundation of the other. The topics in the book, such as sums, generating functions, and number theory, are actually standard discrete math topics; however, the treatment in this text shows the inherent continuous (read: calculus) undergirding of the topics. Without calculus, generating functions would not have come to mind and their tremendous power could not be put to use in figuring out series.

The smart-aleck marginal notes notwithstanding, this is a serious math book for those who are willing to dot every i and cross every t. Unlike most math texts (esp. graduate math texts), nothing is omitted along the way. Notation is explained (=very= important), common pitfalls are pointed out (as opposed to the usual way students come across them -- by getting back bleeding exams), and what is important and what is =not= as important are indicated.

Still, I cannot leave the marginal notes unremarked; some are serious warnings to the reader. For example, in the introduction, one note remarks "I would advise the casual student to stay away from this course." Notes that advise one to skim, and there are a few, should be taken seriously. All the marginal notes come from the TAs who had to help with the text, and thus have a more nitty-gritty understanding of the difficulties students are likely to face. Still, there are plenty of puns and bad jokes to amuse the text-reader for hours: "The empty set is pointless," "But not Imbesselian," and "John .316" made me chuckle, but you have to find them for yourself.

To someone who has been through the rigors of math grad school, this book is a delight to read; to those who have not, they must keep in mind that this is a serious text and must be prepared to do some real work. Very bright high school students have gotten through this text with little difficulty. I want to note ahead of time - some of the questions in the book are serious research topics. They don't necessarily tell you that when they give you the problem; if you've worked on the problem for a week, you should turn to the answers in the back to check that there really is a solution.

That said, I would highly recommend this book to math-lovers who want some rigorous math outside of the usual fare. The formulas in here can actually come in handy "in real life", especially if one has to use math a lot.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fear first, love later, Dec 12 2002

By	William Stevenson (State College, PA) - See all my reviews

I used this book while studying Combinatorics at the University of Warwick, a leading British institution for mathematicians. At the time, the book was a little bit overwhelming - Knuth doesn't waste any time in getting to the point of solving problems in the book. Thus, if you're the type of person who needs lots of worked examples, I would supplement this with another book, for example, Grimaldi's Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics. But this book does belong on the bookshelf - it is a great reference, particularly because it prepares one to read The Art of Computer Programming, also by Knuth. TAOCP is the definitive series on computer science, respected by computer scientists everywhere. I guess the best way to describe Concrete Mathematics is that if you are a graduate student in CS, you should own this book. If you are a mathematically-oriented undergraduate, this book will make you really understand anything that your professors will throw at you. But, if you are not a math-lover, you will want a backup and a really nice professor :)

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very hard exercises., Jul 29 2002

By A Customer

This book is great. But many excercises are too hard for non-mathematically trained reader. I can solve almost all warm-up exercises without peeking the answer. But even few warm-up excercises are virtually research one. For example, see the exercise 2.1. The answer for this exercise is that there is no agreement about this. I think it means that there is no answer for this exercise. Sometimes even understanding an answer is very hard when you read an answer because you can't solve an exercise. This book contains answers for all exercises. But this book's exercises are MUCH HARDER than many other mathematic books which contain answers for only odd number(or even number) exercises.
You need a great inductive mathematical reasoning experience to read this book. If you finish this, you can omit the first 100 pages of TAOCP vol 1.
It would be nice if there is a solution book for this hard concrete book.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 21 customer reviews...

Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Only one problem with this textbook
Basically, I like this textbook. The material is interesting, the way the authors presented the material is inspiring, and they provided a lot of jokes to make even studying for... Read more

Published on April 13 2004