Discrete Mathematics with Ducks 1st Edition by sarah-marie belcastro (PDF)

Description

Containing exercises and materials that engage students at all levels, Discrete Mathematics with Ducks presents a gentle introduction for students who find the proofs and abstractions of mathematics challenging. This classroom-tested text uses discrete mathematics as the context for introducing proofwriting. Facilitating effective and active learning, each chapter contains a mixture of discovery activities, expository text, in-class exercises, and homework problems.Elementary exercises at the end of each expository section prompt students to review the materialTry This! sections encourage students to construct fundamental components of the concepts, theorems, and proofs discussed.Sets of discovery problems and illustrative examples reinforce learning.Bonus sections can be used for take-home exams, projects, or further studyInstructor Notes sections offer suggestions on how to use the material in each chapterDiscrete Mathematics with Ducks offers students a diverse introduction to the field and a solid foundation for further study in discrete mathematics and complies with SIGCSE guidelines. The book shows how combinatorics and graph theory are used in both computer science and mathematics.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐You can tell that this book was written by a woman. Call me sexist all you want, but that is the truth. It was designed to be “cute” and really kills all the seriousness. All these stupid attempts at humor (that aren’t even funny) take away from the ability to learn about math. Look in the first chapter for example:”Scary Clown offers a Sad Meal containing a sandwich, a salad, a dessert, and a drink. (They are not mixed together in a box.) There are 11 types of sandwiches, 3 types of salads, and 5 different types of deserts. A person with low standards for food could eat a different Sad Meal every day for three years. So how many drinks are possible choices for a Sad Meal?”I find absolutely no humor in this and all the “humor” just makes ones mind want to explode. Her problems are also frequently very vague. The class I was in frequently had to debate what was actually asked, often times leading to different answers. If we were lucky, then one of the answers would exist in the back of the book and clarify it, but the English she used wasn’t very concise. This is a good example of that:”A local creperie offers sweet crepes and savory crepes. A sweet crepe could have any fruit (banana, strawberry, mango, apple, lemon) and any syrup (nutella, chocolate, caramel, honey). A savory crepe could have any vegetable (broccoli, mushroom, spinach) and any protein (turkey, cheese, prosciutto). How many different crepes are on the menu?”This one is very vague. Likely she is saying that you can only have one fruit and one syrup for the sweet crepes and on vegetable and one protein for the savory crepes. However, it doesn’t say whether or not you can use more than one fruit as the term “any” implies. It doesn’t say whether you can order one without anything on it. It’s simply not a clear question and there are many other examples that are even more vague than this.Admittedly, I’m only a few chapters into this book so this review could change. But I can tell this is going to be a “lovely” experience.

⭐I don’t know how this can pass as a mathematics book. I understand that discrete math has less emphasis on numbers than most other math subjects, but a math book should not have to be read like a poorly written novel. The book gets off on good footing for simple topics such as counting and sets, using concrete examples that are relatable (????) like the number of ways one can purchase different ice cream flavors from an ice cream store. However, when the book begins introducing new, unfamiliar concepts, everything goes downhill. The book trips over its own feet when trying to explain these new topics. They often lead to a long and dense casual conversation of an idea while trying to cram witty humor into it. The problems at the end of each chapter have no solution and the problems in the middle of the chapter that have a solution have no explanation. What irritates me most is that the examples in the book stop half way and at the end of the chapter ask you to finish it. It’s lazy to use an example that was supposed to explain a concept to the reader as a problem the reader is expected to finish.Overall, the book is incomplete in its explanation and practice problems. With that pointed out, I supposed this book would suffice as a supplement for those who have some experience in discrete math and are able to put together the pieces missing from this book.Worst of all, if you’re actually looking forward to the ducks (for some reason), they mention ducks 4 or 5 times throughout the 450 paged book.

⭐Great book with terrific explanations and visuals.I need a lot of different modes of presentation to understand many of the deeper ideas. This book delivers! Four stars is because there was a small problem with the book that was successfully resolved by the seller. Good customer service. Thank you.

⭐She’s a great author that doesn’t let technical jargon get in the way of learning these concepts. Everything is clearly explained from the ground up. These explanations are not excessively dry, but they are not excessively tacky either. There’s a good amount of entertainment value and context in the writing, but never at the expense of clarity. I am biased because I love ducks though to be fair.

⭐This was the required text for a discrete math course I took last year. It did an okay job as a textbook, though the writing style often grated on me because of how colloquial the author’s tone was; it sometimes sounded condescending. I ignored all the cutesy stuff and skipped to the parts where it actually taught math. The colloquial style was usually effective at getting the topic across, and was very good at explaining pitfalls and good thinking techniques for different types of discrete math problems.This book was written by a mathematician for math students. If you’re a computer science student, you may want to refer to another book because this book’s (very few) chapters on CS-centric applications of discrete math, such as cryptography and search algorithms, are quite lacking in depth.

⭐The breezy, conversational style is wonderful- and it’s well written all the way through. Tough subjects are broken down into simple explanations that actually make sense, which is sort of rare in mathematics books. However, this book is not meant for self-study, as there aren’t many typical problem sets with solutions. I wish that it had more questions with answers for those of us without an instructor to ask. Maybe a new edition could have a workbook with answers to address this? It’s still a wonderful book, but removing one star for lack of solutions manual. The best way to get better at understanding is through practice, and what’s the point of practicing doing something incorrectly? Solutions are important.

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