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How to Think Like a Mathematician
Looking for a head start in your undergraduate degree in mathematics? Maybe you’ve
already started your degree and feel bewildered by the subject you previously loved?
Don’t panic! This panion will ease your transition to real mathematical
thinking.
Working through the book you will develop an arsenal of techniques to help you
unlock the meaning of definitions, theorems and proofs, solve problems, and write
mathematics effectively. All the major methods of proof – direct method, cases,
induction, contradiction and contrapositive – are featured. Concrete examples are used
throughout, and you’ll get plenty of practice on mon to many courses such as
divisors, Euclidean Algorithm, modular arithmetic, equivalence relations, and injectivity
and surjectivity of functions.
The material has been tested by real students over many years so all the essentials are
covered. With over 300 exercises to help you test your progress, you’ll soon learn how to
think like a mathematician.
Essential for any starting undergraduate in mathematics, this book can also help
if you’re studying engineering or physics and need access to undergraduate mathematics
topics, or if you’re taking a subject that requires logic such puter science,
philosophy or linguistics.
How to Think Like a
Mathematician
panion to Undergraduate Mathematics
KEVIN HOUSTON
University of Leeds
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
Information on this title: 0521895460
© K. Houston 2009
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of Cambridge Unive