Concrete Mathematics

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The book cover, showing a sigma in concrete

Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, by Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, and Oren Patashnik, is a perennial textbook in university computer science departments. It provides the mathematical background for computer science, especially the analysis of algorithms. While some of the topics in Concrete Mathematics are similar to those covered by traditional Discrete Mathematics textbooks, the authors have a unique approach to the subject matter: They explain in the preface that concrete mathematics "is a blend of CONtinuous and disCRETE mathematics," and Calculus is frequently used in the explanations and exercises. The term is also used to denote the opposite of abstract mathematics.

The book is based on a course originally taught in 1970 by Knuth at Stanford University. It expands on the material in the "Mathematical Preliminaries" section of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming. Consequently, some readers use it as an introduction to that famous series of books.

Concrete Mathematics distinguishes itself through its informal, humorous style. The authors reject what they see as the dry style of most mathematics textbooks, and the margins contain "mathematical graffiti," comments submitted by the text's first editors: Knuth and Patashnik's students at Stanford.

As with all of Knuth's books, readers are invited to claim a reward for any error found in the book, whether it is "technically, historically, typographically, or politically incorrect."[1]