Discrete Mathematics Through Applications

Rating:
Summary: Good for high school students, but not much else.
Review: Discrete Mathematics Through Applications is a book designed to introduce high school students without much previous mathematical knowledge how to use discrete mathematics in the "real world." Each chapter begins with an activity for student groups to participate in, a few--usually two or three--examples, and a set of exercises to be worked out by the student on their own. The book gradually gets the user used to mathematical notation and inductive thinking and soon it comes instinctively. The chapters are as follows: Election Theory; Fair Division; Matrix Operations and Applications; Graphs and Their Applications; More Graphs, Subgraphs, and Trees; Counting and Probability; Matrices Revisited; and Recursion. Each of those chapters are organized into 5-6 subsections and a review. Among those sections include: graph coloring, euler circuits & paths, markov chains, group-ranking methods, and minimum spanning trees.

The biggest complaint I have about this book is that it weaves around too much. If you are already familiar with a concept or you figure it out half-way through the chapter, too bad! You have to keep reading because all of the exercises are based around the activities at the beginning of the chapter. Sometimes, the exercises even reference previous activities. That can get very frustrating.

I guess the authors' intentions were good, trying to take an activity-based approach to the learning of math, but in the end, it just missed the mark. I am someone who prefers to figure things out, and this book really holds your hand too much. However, if you are not exactly famous for your high notes in math, this book could help immensely.