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6.042J

Mathematics for Computer Science

About This Course

This subject offers an interactive introduction to discrete mathematics oriented toward computer science and engineering. The subject coverage divides roughly into thirds:

  1. Fundamental concepts of mathematics: Definitions, proofs, sets, functions, relations.
  2. Discrete structures: graphs, state machines, modular arithmetic, counting.
  3. Discrete probability theory.

On completion of 6.042J, students will be able to explain and apply the basic methods of discrete (noncontinuous) mathematics in computer science. They will be able to use these methods in subsequent courses in the design and analysis of algorithms, computability theory, software engineering, and computer systems.

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This course is brought to you by MIT OpenCourseWare, and provided under our Creative Commons License. It is also available for study on the OCW website.

Recommended Prerequisites

Familiarity with sequences and series, limits, and differentiation and integration of functions of one variable are necessary. This is taught in 18.01 Single Variable Calculus (OCW).

Instructors

Albert Meyer

Hitachi America Professor of Computer Science

Instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Adam Chlipala

Professor of Research and Development

Instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Related Content

OCW

MITx

License and Terms of Use

This course is licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike(CC BY-NC-SA), which permits you to freely download, share, and adapt the material so long as you give appropriate credit, use it only for non-commercial purposes, and any remix and redistribution of derivative works uses this same CC BY-NC-SA license.

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to the most common questions and find information on further assistance here.
  1. Course Number:

    6.042J
  2. Classes Start:

  3. Classes End:

  4. Length:

    13 weeks
  5. Year Created:

    2019
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