A Short Course

in
Discrete Mathematics
for students of computer and computational science
Edward A. Bender
S. Gill Williamson
c Edward A. Bender & S. Gill Williamson 2004. All rights reserved.
Preface
Discrete mathematics is an essential tool in almost all subareas of computer science. In-
teresting and challenging problems in discrete mathematics arise in programming languages,
computer architecture, networking, distributed systems, database systems, AI, theoretical
computer science, and other areas.
The course. The University of California, San Diego, has a lower-division two-quarter
course sequence in discrete mathematics that includes Boolean arithmetic, combinatorics,
elementary logic, induction, graph theory and nite probability. These courses are core
undergraduate requirements for majors in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and
Mathematics-Computer Science. This text, A Short Course in Discrete Mathematics, was
developed for the rst quarter and Mathematics for Algorithm and System Analysis was
developed for the second quarter.
This book consists of six units of study (Boolean Functions and Computer Arithmetic;
Logic; Number Theory and Cryptography; Sets and Functions; Equivalence and Order; and
Induction, Sequences and Series), each divided into two sections. Each section contains a
representative selection of problems. These vary from basic to more dicult, including
proofs for study by mathematics students or honors students.
The review questions. Multiple Choice Questions for Review appear at the end of
each unit. The explanatory material in this book is directed towards giving students the
mathematical language and sophistication to recognize and articulate the ideas behind
these questions and to answer questions that are similar in concept and diculty. Many
variations of these questions have been successfully worked on exams by most beginning
students using this book at UCSD.
Students who master the ideas and mathematical language needed to understand these
review questions gain the ability to formulate, in the neutral language of mathematics,
problems that arise in various applications of computer science. This skill greatly facilitates
their ability to discuss problems in discrete mathematics with other computer scientists and
with mathematicians.
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Table of Contents
Asterisks (stars) are used in the text to mark more
dicult material that is not needed in later sections.
Unit BF: Boolean Functions and Computer Arithmetic
Section 1: Boolean Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BF-1
Boolean function, binary operator, unary operator, not (), and (), or (), ex-
clusive or (), truth table, disjunctive normal form, conjunctive normal form
Section 2: Number Systems and Computer Arithmetic. . . . . . . . . . . . . BF-9
digit symbols, digit symbol of index or rank i, base-b number, binary arithmetic,
twos complement, logic gate, half adder, full adder
Multiple Choice Questions for Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BF-23
Unit Lo: Logic
Section 1: Propositional Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lo-1
truth table, statement forms, tautology, contradiction,implication, conditional, con-
trapositive, double implication, biconditional, converse, inverse, if, only if, sucient,
necessary, unless
Section 2: Predicate Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lo-12
predicate, truth set, prime, composite, Fermat number, Mersenne number, perfect
numbers, Goldbach conjecture, Fermats Last Theorem, Marin Mersenne (1588
1648), Pierre de Fermat (16011665), Christian Goldbach (16901764), Leonhard
Euler (17071783), Karl Friedrich Gauss (17771855)
Multiple Choice Questions for Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lo-23
Unit NT: Number Theory and Cryptography
Section 1: Basic Facts About Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NT-1
rational numbers, irrational numbers, prime, composite, odd, even, n divides m,
prime factorization, innitely many primes, perfect squares, irrationality of integral
square roots, residue classes mod d, mod as binary operator, mod as equivalence
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relation, modular arithmetic, modular addition, modular multiplication, oor func-
tion, ceiling function, diagonalization proofs
Section 2: Cryptography and Secrecy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NT-13
plaintext, ciphertext, key, espionage, greatest common divisor, least common mul-
tiple, gcd(m, n) as linear combination of m and n, Euclidean algorithm, Euler
function, public key, symmetric encryption, discrete log problem, Die-Hellman
algorithm, *RSA algorithm
Multiple Choice Questions for Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NT-26
Unit SF: Sets and Functions
Section 1: Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SF-1
intersection, union, dierence, complement, symmetric dierence, product, Carte-
sian product, binomial coecients, C(n, k) =

n
k

, algebraic rules, associative rule,

distributive rule, idempotent rule, DeMorgans rule, absorption rule, commutative
rule, lexicographic order, power set, characteristic function, set partitions, Bell
numbers, renement
Section 2: Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SF-15
function, domain, range, codomain, image, relation, functional relation, one-line
notation, surjection, onto, injection, one-to-one, bijection, permutation, two-line
notation, composition of functions, cycle form of permutation, image of function,
inverse image, coimage, set partitions, Stirling numbers S(n, k), Bell numbers
Multiple Choice Questions for Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SF-29
Unit EO: Equivalence and Order
Section 1: Equivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EO-1
equivalence relation, equivalence class, blocks of a partition, coimage, reexive, sym-
metric, transitive, relational description, coimage description, pigeonhole principle,
subset sums, monotone subsequences, extended pigeonhole principle, transpositions
Section 2: Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EO-12
antisymmetric relation, order relation, partially ordered set, poset, incidence ma-
trices, total ordering, linear ordering, set inclusion, lattice of subsets, incomparable
subsets, renement relation, subposet, direct product, Cartesian product, coor-
dinate order, characteristic function, directed graph diagrams, transitive closure,
Boolean product, Boolean sum, covering relation, Hasse diagram, chain, least el-
ement, greatest element, maximal element, minimal element, lexicographic (lex)
order, length-rst lex order, lexicographic bucket sort, comparison sort, tiling prob-
lems, domino coverings, rotation-reection relation, linear extensions, topological
sorting
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Multiple Choice Questions for Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EO-34
Unit IS: Induction, Sequences and Series
Section 1: Induction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IS-1
induction, strong induction, simple induction, induction hypothesis, induction step,
base case, product of primes, sum of rst n integers, *sums of k
th
powers, *dier-
ences
Section 2: Innite Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IS-12
innite sequence, limit of sequence, convergent sequence, bounded sequence, mono-
tone sequence, convergent to innity
*Section 3: Innite Series. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IS-20
innite series, telescoping series, geometric series, harmonic series, alternating har-
monic series, alternating series, generalized alternating series, absolute convergence,
conditional convergent, tails of series, integral test, general harmonic series, con-
vergence and intuition, the size of primes
Multiple Choice Questions for Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IS-31
Solutions to Exercises
Notation Index
Subject Index
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