What is the maximum number of pizza slices one can get by making four straight cuts through a circular pizza? How does a computer determine the best set of pixels to represent a straight line on a computer screen? How many people at a minimum does it take to guard an art gallery?

Discrete mathematics has the answer to these -- and many other -- questions of picking, choosing, and shuffling. T. S. Michael's gem of a book brings this vital but tough-to-teach subject to life using examples from real life and popular culture. Each chapter uses one problem -- such as slicing a pizza -- to detail key concepts about counting numbers and arranging finite sets. Michael takes a different perspective in tackling each of eight problems and explains them in differing degrees of generality, showing in the process how the same mathematical concepts appear in varied guises and contexts. In doing so, he imparts a broader understanding of the ideas underlying discrete mathematics and helps readers appreciate and understand mathematical thinking and discovery.

This book explains the basic concepts of discrete mathematics and demonstrates how to apply them in largely nontechnical language. The explanations and formulas can be grasped with a basic understanding of linear equations.

In addition to a modern treatment of the classical areas of graph theory such as coloring, matching, extremal theory, and algebraic graph theory, the book presents a detailed account of newer topics, including Szemer'edi's Regularity Lemma and its use, Shelah's extension of the Hales-Jewett Theorem, the precise nature of the phase transition in a random graph process, the connection between electrical networks and random walks on graphs, and the Tutte polynomial and its cousins in knot theory.

In no other branch of mathematics is it as vital to tackle and solve challenging exercises in order to master the subject. To this end, the book contains an unusually large number of well thought-out exercises: over 600 in total. Although some are straightforward, most of them are substantial, and others will stretch even the most able reader.

New to the Second Edition

Taking a basic approach to elliptic curves, this accessible book prepares readers to tackle more advanced problems in the field. It introduces elliptic curves over finite fields early in the text, before moving on to interesting applications, such as cryptography, factoring, and primality testing. The book also discusses the use of elliptic curves in Fermat’s Last Theorem. Relevant abstract algebra material on group theory and fields can be found in the appendices.

Illustrating the power of algorithms, Algorithmic Cryptanalysis describes algorithmic methods with cryptographically relevant examples. Focusing on both private- and public-key cryptographic algorithms, it presents each algorithm either as a textual description, in pseudo-code, or in a C code program.

Divided into three parts, the book begins with a short introduction to cryptography and a background chapter on elementary number theory and algebra. It then moves on to algorithms, with each chapter in this section dedicated to a single topic and often illustrated with simple cryptographic applications. The final part addresses more sophisticated cryptographic applications, including LFSR-based stream ciphers and index calculus methods.

Accounting for the impact of current computer architectures, this book explores the algorithmic and implementation aspects of cryptanalysis methods. It can serve as a handbook of algorithmic methods for cryptographers as well as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses on cryptanalysis and cryptography.

Key features of Putnam and Beyond

* Preliminary material provides an overview of common methods of proof: argument by contradiction, mathematical induction, pigeonhole principle, ordered sets, and invariants.

* Each chapter systematically presents a single subject within which problems are clustered in every section according to the specific topic.

* The exposition is driven by more than 1100 problems and examples chosen from numerous sources from around the world; many original contributions come from the authors.

* Complete solutions to all problems are given at the end of the book. The source, author, and historical background are cited whenever possible.

This work may be used as a study guide for the Putnam exam, as a text for many different problem-solving courses, and as a source of problems for standard courses in undergraduate mathematics. Putnam and Beyond is organized for self-study by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as teachers and researchers in the physical sciences who wish to to expand their mathematical horizons.