Discrete Mathematics Companion Website
Welcome to the companion website for the Discrete Mathematics textbook1.
I look forward to feedback on the book as I try to cobble together a first draft over summer. My motivation for this exercise is mainly that teaching undergraduate Discrete Math2 has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had. I owe a lot of this joy to the wonderful books, lectures, and videos I’ve come across in preparation. I now feel like sharing this happiness by collecting my favorites in one place. I also have a vested interest that I imagine is common among people who undertake such projects: the hope is to develop a greater familiarity with the material in the process of trying to put it together :)
Discrete Math at the undergraduate level is often taught with a dedicated tutorial slot. Over the years, I have had a lot of fun drawing inspiration from several sources to turn the tutorial sessions into hands-on activities. In particular, I’ve found that playing games, solving puzzles, discussing paradoxes, and performing card magic are engaging ways to revisit and apply ideas from the lectures.
The topics of this course also offer a good opportunity to appreciate historical context: the development of many things we now take for granted, whether number systems or paradox-inducing axioms, came about over long periods of deliberations and debate. The role of mathematicians in ancient India in some of these themes is also a matter of intrigue and beauty.
Discrete Mathematics is often assigned to the semester where students are also introduced to some flavors of data structures and algorithms, which in turn usually has a lab component. I believe that with a little planning, it is possible to bring out synergies between these courses. I hope to have suggestive pointers for places where there is scope to sync.
The Plan: I will be rolling out a chapter every week over summer, starting from the 21st of April. There are seven chapters, each in two parts: the first covers core material that would be suitable for roughly four lectures, and while the extras cover additional trivia and sometimes advanced material suitable for self-study. This companion website will also be used to host interactive demonstrations for some of the activities in the book.
Please drop your details on the updates page to recieve an email notification when a new chapter is available. You can also join the Zulip community to participate in discussions around the chapters. Feel free to send me an email at neeldhara.misra@gmail.com if you have any questions, or drop a comment below. Thanks for your interest in this project :)