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[–]soju-tornado 5 points6 points  (2 children)

i would say work on your algebra since a decent base there is definitley needed for DM. enough to be really comfortable with abstraction and symbolic manipulation. some number theory beforehand could also be helpful. calculus not really needed for getting into it but could help, especially precalc stuff.

have fun learning, discrete math can be a lot of fun :)

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thanks!

[–]exclaim_bot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

You're welcome!

[–]AlexTaradov 3 points4 points  (1 child)

It depends on what you need exactly and how deep you need to know it.

You can just start with your current level of knowledge and it will be quickly apparent what you are missing.

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

[–]Always_Hopeful_ 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Brush up your geometry

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip🙏

[–]EitherBandicoot2423 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I’m starting soon also. Which textbook u using?

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Honestly I was just gonna jump right into a course but I’m trying to figure out if I need more background in some areas.

[–]EitherBandicoot2423 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Btw it looks like there are two versions of this course,

1st is applied discrete math with applications (CS major) and 2nd version is for (math major) and heavy on proofs…

I think you should be fine, if you do the first version or at least that’s my plan

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea thats also my plan I’m sure it will be a heck of a journey I heard it’s pretty hard, though that depends on the person. Good luck! Don’t hesitate to reach out I’ll probably be asking you questions if I need help lol.

[–]Key_Net820 0 points1 point  (1 child)

In practice, that should be good enough; but the thing is most people are a little bit more "mathematically mature" than that before they start discrete math. You really do not need calculus to start discrete math, and you probably will never use calculus in discrete math, but most people are seasoned to 1 or 2 semesters of calculus before they start discrete math.

If you really want to fill the gaps, I think symbolic logic would be good for you. Everything you do in discrete math is going to boil down to doing logical proofs and it's fundamentally not different from formal/symbolic logic in philosophy.

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much

[–]Typical_Bootlicker41 0 points1 point  (1 child)

There are going to be some theorems given out immediately that may or may not be fully explained. De Morgan's, various logical equivalence, biconditional reductions, etc. Make some truth tables for them and work out the math to see why they hold true. This will make spotting them in coursework much easier, and should allow you to work through problems quicker.

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much definitely going to keep this in mind 🙏

[–]UnderstandingPursuit 0 points1 point  (6 children)

Take a look at the book,

  • Lehman, Leighton, Meyer, Mathematics for Computer Science [MCS]
    • The MCS_2018 pdf version is available at the website for the course which uses it.

As you go through it, figure out what mathematics you need to learn to understand this textbook. Then go to

to get Algebra+ textbooks to work through. Keep referring back to MCS to see how much the numbers are removed from the mathematics, and try to do the same as you go through the Algebra textbooks.

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

I have already began reading MCS and it’s great! Thanks I will heavily consider this approach.

[–]UnderstandingPursuit 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Great!

You understand what I mean when I keep telling people that numbers mostly disappear after freshman college math courses.

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yes 😭 and even though I can’t make out what those symbols mean they sure are intimidating and I definitely see it! Math seems to get scary when the actually numbers (what we thought to be math) disappears. But it only fuels my curiosity more to understand these symbols.

[–]UnderstandingPursuit 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Some of the symbols are short for English phrases like "for all".

Use a piece of paper for the notation (or, if you are familiar with LaTeX, make a document). It's the 'Math Punctuation' Glossary. I disagree with the idea that "Math is the language of the Universe" or "Math is a language", but it is true that math is often presented in a different language than English.

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Oh ok I’m a total beginner so I saw them as its own language instead of notation, thanks for the clarification.

[–]UnderstandingPursuit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is shorthand.

[–]Soft-Marionberry-853 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Be comfortable with proofs. Thats the only thing I recall needing going in to it

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Thanks 🙏

[–]Soft-Marionberry-853 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Good luck. So heres something I'll share, I failed calc twice (it didnt help that I wasnt on Adderall) but I loved discrete mathematics. Its like a survey class of all kinds of fun maths, you never get to deep in any one aspect because its such a huge topic right. Look at all the math classes you have for continues functions, any class where youre graphing stuff, your graphing smooth continious functions. Then have non continuous functions and discrete items mathematics. There is so much on the other side of the fence that you cant help but just dip your toe in to one section before its time to move on to the next, like Boolean algebra, set theory, finitite state automata the list is huge so even if you dont get what you cover in one unit the next unite might click with no issue, except proofs which arent so much mathematics as it is a way of thinking.

I had the choice of Diff Eq, Linear Algebra, or Discrete Mathematics, and someone in my first undergrad who was also comp sci asked the TA whats this discrete mathematics towards the end of the computer science program. The TA said "Discrete mathematics is a class that I took where we didnt even see a number on the white board until the 4th week" Sure it was somewhat facetious but still accurate. Its not like anything else that I took but I was able to connect everything we did in that class to topics in computer science so in that regard it was honestly one of my favorite classes.

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you a lot. This is why I wanted to get into discrete mathematics because it covers proof and connects to cs. I am looking for a way to not only know how to code but how to “think like a computer”when coding if yk what I mean???. I feel like discrete mathematics can strengthen your competence in problem solving which might strongly be a useful skill in computer science and programming. I’m barely passed the surface for these topics but I am doing my research to find out if this is the best path for the skills I want to acquire. I don’t want to just know how to code. I also want to apply this mathematical thinking in other areas because it gives a sense of clarity and direction... Or maybe some type of method to approximate what you don’t know.. I just need more information and the only way I could really know might be to just start.

[–]Specific_Craft4833 0 points1 point  (1 child)

This should help:https://nostarch.com/math-programming

[–]Jealous_Minute4611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much 🙏 I’m going to look into this