Graphs: An Introductory Approach--A First Course in Discrete Mathematics

Graph theory and analysis is becoming increasingly popular and useful, and not just in pure mathematics. Indeed, a significant amount of computer network theory connects with some of the models and mathematical modeling presented here. What is especially surprising in this text is the ease with which one can self-study a significant amount of the material. There are, of course, numerous drawings to clarify concepts. Plan on making a bunch of your own sketches too with this text. There are enough answers in the back to verify your understanding of the concepts. If you have seen a chapter or so on graph theory in another introductory textbook on discrete mathematics (or computer mathematics) this can be a great continuation of that study. By being fairly accessible to students immediately after precalculus (or strong algebra/geomtery) the text understandably does not go into the deepest elements of graph theory for pure mathematics studies. So this book is probably ideally suited to students who need a fair amount of mathematics but whom are not necessarily math majors. Computer and social science students will most likely benefit from the modeling presented here (different models for each of those fields but there are enough examples here to assure a strong background for either field). A used copy of this text (due to cost) is a great idea to supplement any discrete math textbook to explore the token chapter or two on graph theory.