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Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for able talent and refreshing light touch of
Computer Science the junior co-author (Patashnik) is also
Ronald L. Graham, Donald E. Knuth, and keenly felt throughout this work.
Oren Patashnik This book is the outgrowth of a
&25 pp., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, course taught annually at Stanford
1989. $39.75.
since 1970 under the same title, "Con-
crete Mathematics." In organization it
Reviewed by Stanley Liu is an expanded, annotated version of the
Mathematical Preliminaries Section 1.2
in the monumental, (continuing)
athematics tends to play a sig- multi-volume computer science classic
Absorbance
M nificant role in a modern-day
physicist's professional life.
This is a theme deftly brought out by
The Art of Computer Programming,
Donald E. Knuth, Addison-Wesley,
1973. The book is divided into nine
Wigner in a celebrated essay on the chapters, many of which may be read
Absorption Study
~3mr---r---~--~--~-, unreasonable effectiveness of math- independently as individual expository
~~ o fasting
• norrfastJ.ng
ematics in the natural sciences-par-
ticularly, its effectiveness in physics. It
articles.
As the reader quickly catches on,
.3-2JIl
§ is pointed out that " ... mathematical an essential component of concrete
101.50
;, concepts turn up in entirely unexpected mathematics lies in the interplay
] too connections. Moreover, they often per- between the discrete and the continuous
mit an unexpectedly close and accurate and in the cross fertilization between
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o 200 400 600 em DXl
description of the phenomena in these combinatorics and algorithmics. This
Dose log/kg) connections. " book achieves its highest, most endur-
Despite the seemingly restrictive ing level of success dealing with these
For $79 MicroMath's GRAPH pro- subtitle of this book, Concrete Math- topics. There are masterful discussions
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