Reviews (16)

Advanced Crypto for the college mind.
This very detailed work is not for the light hearted. It's an in depth look at the mathmatics behind cryptography. If you're looking for a book to help you program then look for Applied Cryptography by Bruce the crypto king instead. If you're looking for something to help you learn cryptoanalysis and how to break codes then this is the first step.

Fantastic traditional reference
The Chapter 14 - Efficient Implementation - shows several multiple precision algorithms. They are very easy to understand and implement under any microprocessor. It is a very good complement to the book set written by Donald Knuth (The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set), another fantastic traditional reference.

A very detailed book, but not for everyone.
This is a fairly strong book on crypto, with heavy detail on the math involved.The upside is that the second chapter is devoted to most of the important mathematical theory you'll need to understand for the rest of the book.The downside?That chapter tries to cover just about the same breadth of information as a semester long course in Number Theory.Read more

Subjects:  1. Access control    2. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    3. Computers    4. Computers - Computer Security    5. Cryptography    6. Cryptography/Access Control    7. Discrete Mathematics    8. Handbooks, manuals, etc    9. Reference    10. Security - General    11. Applications of Computing    12. Applied mathematics    13. Data security & data encryption    14. Mathematical theory of computation    15. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Reviews (1)

A pretty good book
While the table of contents is very good, too much time is wasted in developing preliminaries. The text should quickly move into the core of the subject, but instead spends 220 pages developing the elementary material. A good reference for teachers of discrete mathematics with emphasis in combinatorics and not in computer science. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Combinatorial Analysis    3. Combinatorics    4. Computer Science    5. Computers    6. Discrete Mathematics (Computer Science)    7. Mathematics    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Applied mathematics    10. Mathematical theory of computation    11. Mathematics / Advanced   

Reviews (3)

A confusing hodgepodge of tangential ideas
I agree completely with J. Elliott.The author states so many propositions without proof, and even the proofs given are too sketchy, forcing the reader to fill in every detail, and in many instances, the author's proofs are simply wrong.Many of his definitions are vague and confusing, in many cases bewildering the reader's mind with all kinds of tangential questions unrelated to the main topic.Paul Taylor misleads the reader with chapter titles like "Posets and Lattices" and "Cartesian Closed Categories" in which he does not stick to the topics he promises to cover but jumps all over the place into unrelated fields.It's like he wants to "introduce" the reader to so much that he has no time to explain anything.
Useful summary, poor exposition
The author's staccato writing style is reminiscent of Gilbert Strang's. Some may like it, but I find it jarring. The content is a concise summary of interesting topics at the confluence of mathematics, logic and computer science (see the table of contents), but it reads like a pr�cis for those who already know the subject. This is no doubt fine if you fall into that category. If you're looking for an expository text, this, alas, isn't it.

needs attention but worth it
this is a a good work, the section about Structural Recursion was very insightful too
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Subjects:  1. Aquatic mammals    2. Behavior    3. Combinatorics    4. Congresses    5. Ecology    6. Foundations Of Mathematics    7. General    8. Mathematics    9. Philosophy Of Mathematics    10. Riparian animals    11. Science/Mathematics    12. Aquatic mammals--Behavior--Congresses    13. Mathematical foundations    14. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Subjects:  1. Geometry - General    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Combinatorics & graph theory    5. Mathematics / Geometry / General   

Reviews (20)

Simple, straightforward. Worth a read
I don't usually review books here, and I've bought quite a few I can tell you. However, this book, I believe, warrants comment. It is a no-nonsense, simple, accurate, and mathimatically sound was of playing the lottery. It is basically just a list of wheels (systems) for you to use to get the most out of your playing. It doesn't tell you how to pick numbers, or go into any fancy (in my opinion, useless) analysis or predicitions of numbers.
Well worth the small price
I doubt there is any book of its kind as well thought out and packed with as much useful imformation as this one.
Clearly the best lottery wheel book out there!
This book by far is the best lottery wheel book I've purchased. I've won more money more times with Bluskov's "multiple" and "double-win guarantees" than I ever did with the other popular (GH) wheel books on the market. Of course with any lottery win you have to choose the correct numbers, but his "Table of Wins" are right on the money. I used system #3 (guarantee 5 number win if 5 of your 10 numbers are drawn--$50) Result: I correctly picked 4 numbers out of 10. I won 3- 4 number prizes ($300) plus 20- 3 number prizes ($100) for a total of $400 from my $50 investment. No other wheel book on the market has more multiple win guarantees than this author! I can't wait until he publishes a book for the pick-5 lottery. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorics    2. Gambling - Lotteries    3. Games    4. Games / Gambling / Lotteries    5. Games/Puzzles    6. Handbooks & Manuals    7. Gambling    8. Gambling systems    9. Lotteries    10. Lotto    11. Statistical methods   

Reviews (23)

Rigorous but accesible..an engineer's intro to proofs
I write this review on the context of having done all the math required for mechanical engineer but never havin to do proofs... as B.Rusell once said do and the by faith you will believe... trying to escape that state of mind I got this book some years ago, Im glad for the author follows a structure approach similar to learning a programming language, once you master some elemenatry techniques you can stack up to create refined algorithms.

5 Stars for the book, 1 star for an unnecessary 2nd edition
I have the first edition of this excellent book, and I compared it to the recently published second edition. Quite frankly, I can't see why they bothered. It's not like the methods of mathematical proofs change that much over time. We're not talking about some 1400 page shovelware book on being a MCSE/CCNA/etc. where the qualifications change every six months. There are only three basic changes to this book in its second edition:
overlay logic on any other type of maths
The math notation in this book is that typically of texts used by maths majors. Most of those people should already have a grasp of proving statements. But some do not, and the book is directed to them.
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Subjects:  1. Combinatorics    2. General    3. Logic    4. Logic, Symbolic and mathematic    5. Logic, Symbolic and mathematical    6. Mathematics    7. Science    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Mathematical logic    10. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Reviews (5)

Very challenging, very deep
This is an excellent book on combinatorics, but it is quite difficult to understand.The author often chooses a more general framework in which to present things, and this can make the material quite difficult to follow.But the rewards for the diligent reader are great.Occasionally I question how Stanley chooses to present a certain topic, but usually if I look closely enough, I see that there are often some very deep reasons for his choice of notation or presentation.
A Masterpiece on Enumerative Combinatorics
I agree with the other reviewers.The book is a masterpiece on enumerative combinatorics.However, I am not so sure that it is a good book for a beginner.If you are a beginner, then you should read another book first, like John Riordan's book on "Combinatorial Analysis."Stanley's book is best suited for an advanced student who has a high level of mathematical mental maturity.The reason I say this is that in a few places Stanley's formalism, which is entirely appropriate for professional exposition, actually obscures the underlying simplicity of the mathematical ideas.We have all seen this in research papers, where a mathematician takes a trivial idea and "obsures" the underlying simplicity with too much formalism.However, for an advanced student, the book has a high density of important ideas and methods.

This is for people who likes to COUNT
Gosh! This is for people who count, what else does a combinatorist do? Before people dismiss me as somebody who don't know hoot about math: I took a class with Prof. Stanley (the author) in college, and I had actually used vol 1 as a text. The material is highbrow (I agree on the 'hardcore' math observation) but the main theme of the book is how to 'count' -- needless to say not in the sense of everyday counting, but in the sense that 'topology' is 'coffee-to-donut transformation' and 'analysis' is 'honors calculus'. You have to know how to count, and comfortable with combinatorial proof to actually learn from this. I like the fact that Prof. Stanley asks for combinatorial proof to some known results, marking them as unsolved -- he really elevates the status of combinatorial proof, a method many dismiss as 'handwaving'. There is a number given to each exercise, according to the level of difficulty: [1] for trivial, [5] unsolved. I saw a professor who worked in differential topology for 40 years refer to this book -- and first year undergrads thumbing through the pages for exercises marked [1] and [2] to solve in spare time. This is a book for all levels of mathematicians: I am sure even the armchair amateur mathematicians can grasp some of the materials after a hard day's thought. I dont see this book as any less than a definitive text on enumerative combinatiorics. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorics    2. Discrete Mathematics    3. Functional Analysis    4. Mathematics    5. Theory Of Functions    6. Combinatorial enumeration problems    7. Combinatorics & graph theory    8. Mathematics / Probability   

Reviews (3)

Love, love, love this book...
I happen to love studying probability theory and the probabilistic method and this is the book I come to time and time again. It is well organized and provides great, straightforward, insightful explanations. However, its main strength is its wealth of beautiful (fairly recently) results (in varied fields) which show the method coming to life. Can't recommend this enough...

Learn from the masters
This book shows you how to approach problems in discrete mathematics that don't seem to be probabilistic at all, and nonetheless to apply probabilistic methods to find extremely sharp results. The book is full of beautifully chosen examples worked out by the authors, who are world class researchers in this subject area. Should be on the bookshelf of everyone who uses discrete mathematics.

A very interesting book
I found this book very enjoyable to read. Although theunderlying themeof the book is to demonstrate examples of proofs of existence of a propertyof a finite structure by showing the structure must have the property withpositive probabiltiy, the book goes beyond this to cover areas such ascircuit complexity and discrepancy theory that rely heavily onprobabilistic arguments. A must read for anyone who wants to addprobablistic tools to their toolbox for proving things about discretestructures. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorial Analysis    2. Combinatorics    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Mathematics    5. Probabilities    6. Probability & Statistics - General    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Combinatorics & graph theory    9. Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics    10. Probability & statistics   

Reviews (5)

Not enough contents to be a good book
Networks are since a couple of years object of intense research in several different disciplines. One reason therefore is certainly the outstanding article by Watts and Strogatz, Collective dynamics of small world networks, Nature, 393:440--442, 1998. Unfortunatelly, this book can not continue the high level of this article. Actually, it does not really provide much more information than the article itself. I would suggest to read the article cited above and either decide for another book or to look directly in the literature and read the origninal articles.
Good, but some typos
Mathematical level: Moderate; there's no calculus, and little high level math, but the book is quite mathematical in tone, and some of the arguments may be difficult to follow without a good "math sense".There are MANY equations and graphs.
Inspiring
The author believes that human thought might be a small world, in the sense that one could reach any idea if he/she finds the right associations and "short-cut"s. The small-world theory is indeed one of those short cuts itself. It links many different domains and uncovers some interesting common behavior. Read more

Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Graphic Methods    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Applied mathematics    6. Biological Sciences    7. Combinatorics & graph theory    8. Economics    9. Mathematics / Advanced    10. Physics    11. Sociology   

Reviews (7)

Short and to the point
This book is excellent! It chapters are broken down into short sections and the content in each section is to the point! I also bought the book Proofs and Fundamentals by Ethan D. Bloch but found it to be long and drawn out. If you liked The Nuts and Bolts of Proofs by Antonella Cupillari then this book is for you!

Very well written book
I have a mathematics degree. Like most math majors, I struggled with proofs all through college. This book really has help me understand the art of writing proofs. The book is very well written and easy to read. This is just an awesome book!!!

Now I know how beautiful proofs can be
This book provides a nice introduction to mathematical reasoning and proofs. My intention on purchasing this book was to learn how to perform mathematical proofs. I believe it has achieved that purpose. The text is easy to follow and the author presents the work clearly. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Logic    2. Mathematics    3. Number Systems    4. Number Theory    5. Proof theory    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Set Theory    8. Mathematical foundations    9. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Reviews (1)

Very comprehensive overview of computational geometry
This book, written by many well-known experts in the field, is a fine compendium of articles on the most active areas of computational geometry. Each article is supplemented with a glossary of terms needed for understanding the relevant concepts and frequently contains a list of open problems.An overview of the convex hull of a collection of random points in Euclidean n-space is given in one of the articles on discrete aspects of stochastic geometry, where also a very interesting discussion of generalizations of the Buffon needle problem is given. Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorial geometry    2. Data processing    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Geometry    5. Geometry - General    6. Handbooks, manuals, etc    7. Mathematics    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Features

• Unabridged

Reviews (12)

a great bargain
It is my favorite book on combinatorial optimization. The last 5 chapters 15-19 are the most interesting and useful to me because my job is write heuristics for NP hard problems in transportation. Chatpers 15 and 16 on NP complete problems are well explained and covered in depth. Chapter 17 on approximation algorithms is easy to understand and fun to read. Chapters 18 (branch-and-bound and dynamic programming) and 19 (local search) are very practical stuff, which I read many times.
Well written and accessible
A couple of years ago I used this book to prepare for my PhD comprehensive exam and recently I picked it up again. While a lot has happened in OR since the book was written, the basics are covered in fine detail and in beautiful style. It could also be used as a graduate textbook or a course supplement. A very useful book for anyone interested in combinatorial optimization. What missing is the wealth of Artificial Intelligence techniques successfully used to tackle NP-hard optimization problems. But this is not a negative comment, just for your information. That belongs to another book. Linear Programming, Duality, Spanning Trees, Flows, Matching and introduction into NP-completeness are finely covered. A truly great job for an amazingly low price (see the text book prices with similar titles).

It was Good!!
This is a Good Book for whom want to learn the concept of combinatorial Optimaization.
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Subjects:  1. Combinatorial optimization    2. Combinatorics    3. Computational complexity    4. General    5. Mathematical optimization    6. Mathematics    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Combinatorics & graph theory    9. Mathematics / General    10. Optimization   

Reviews (1)

Get your library to get this.
This is a collection of survey articles by various top class mathematicians about combinatorics, and the links the subject has with other branches of knowledge, from topology to biology. I have only read acouple of chapters in any detail and they were very useful. If you are incombinatorics, you must have access to this. The expense is worth it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorial Analysis    2. Combinatorics    3. General    4. Information Theory    5. Mathematics    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Computers / Information Theory   

Reviews (2)

Very Limited Book
This book has very few examples and the exercies are do not An excellent introduction to the design theory world
This book is filling a gap in the literature to learn the basic techniques in combinatorial designs. It is accessible for any student with a minimum background in mathematics, this makes the book appropriate as a textbook onthe subject. The exercises are very well designed too.Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Combinatorial Analysis    3. Combinatorial designs and conf    4. Combinatorial designs and configurations    5. Discrete Mathematics    6. General    7. Mathematics    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Combinatorics & graph theory    10. Mathematics / Combinatorics    11. Mathematics for scientists & engineers   

Subjects:  1. Communication Networks    2. Computer Science    3. Computers - General Information    4. Discrete Mathematics    5. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    6. Graph Theory    7. Graphic Methods    8. Network analysis (Planning)    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Technology    11. Combinatorics & graph theory    12. Computer Communications & Networking    13. Computers / General   

Reviews (1)

Good Reference
This is an EXCELLENT reference manual. Its a "bit" mathematical, but does need to be updated regarding turbo codes. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Coding Theory    2. Computers - General Information    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Information Theory    5. Mathematics    6. Number Theory    7. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Set Theory    10. Algebra    11. Algebraic geometry    12. Algebraic number theory    13. Applied mathematics    14. Combinatorics & graph theory    15. Mathematics / Number Theory   

Reviews (3)

Winner of the 2006 Mathematical Association of America Beckenbach Book Prize
"Thoroughly engaging... Accessible to a very broad audience... While the theorems covered may not be new to research mathematicians, I would wager that very few of us have seen them proven in quite this way." -- American Mathematical Monthly [http://www.maa.org/reviews/reallycount.html]
Outstanding exposition
I was introduced to this book by a talk that one of the authors (Arthur Benjamin) gave at the MAA Mathfest in Albuquerque in August of 2005.The talk was one of the very best mathematics talks that I've ever attended.Everyone in the audience could follow what was going on, and we all left with an understanding of the basic approach to combinatorial identities used in this book.The authors' approach is to prove combinatorial identities by defining a quantity and then obtaining different formulas for that quantity.One formula becomes the left hand side of an identity while another formula becomes the right hand side.
Lovely author
I haven't read this book yet, but I have a signed copy after seeing Jenny Quinn speak at the 2005 meeting of the Northwest chapter of the Mathmatics Association of America.If her written work is anything like her speaking, then this should be a great book.Her combinatorial proofs are an interesting approach to old equations, and she presents them in a very clear manner.A most enthusiastic lady. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorics    2. Counting & Numeration    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Mathematics    5. Reference    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Combinatorics & graph theory    8. Mathematics / Combinatorics    9. Number theory   

Reviews (6)

Plain and simple: EXCELLENT book

great, comprehensive introduction
Regardless of whether you just want to implement a couple of graph algorithms or get into the guts of graph theoretic proofs, this book should come in as a great resource. not recommended
This book was used for my undergraduate course in introductory graph theory, which was split between math and computer science students. I found that this book left to be desired. The definitions are imprecise and often inconsistent with those that are standard, and much of the notation used is not standard. I would not recommend this book as a reference or for advanced students. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Combinatorics    3. Graph theory    4. Graphic Methods    5. Mathematics    6. Operating Systems - General    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Combinatorics & graph theory    9. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Combinatorial analysis    3. Combinatorial enumeration problems    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Textbooks    7. Combinatorics & graph theory    8. Mathematics / Advanced   

Reviews (4)

Excellent book but difficult to skip around; topics in a strange order
I find the organization of topics in this book to be very annoying.It is certainly unorthodox.Many concepts which are often presented earlier in combinatorics texts, such as binomial coefficients and stirling numbers, are relegated to later chapters, where their presentation depends on more advanced concepts from earlier chapters.I find this is a book that it is hard to jump around in--you need to read it from the beginning, in order, or you will not be able to follow the arguments in some of the chapters.
A nice tour of combinatorics
The first word that comes to my mind when I think of this text is "encyclopedic". It contains around 40 chapters, hitting most of the high points of combinatorics that a graduate student should see. The exposition is generally good with nice examples. The one thing that I fault it for is the number of statements that the authors claim are "obvious". In a way, this is good, because it makes you pay attention and understand the material, but sometimes the statement isn't obvious until you've thought about it for an hour and written out a lengthy proof. At that point, it does become completely obvious and you can't believe that you ever thought it wasn't, so I can understand why van Lint and Wilson fell into the trap so often. (In fact, I've heard that Wilson even stumbles over some of those points in lectures.) This is a great book to have on your shelf if you need somewhere to look up combinatorial ideas.

A gentle introduction to combinatorics
This book was the text for a graduate-level course I took.The presentation is very laid-back, much like the lecturing style of one of the authors (Wilson), and so it was quite readable (unlike many other mathbooks which you have to stop every few pages and pick apart everythingbefore it sinks in).Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorial analysis    2. Combinatorics    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Combinatorics & graph theory    6. Mathematics / Probability