With the advent of the information age, the mainstream position of continuous mathematics represented by calculus has changed in the era of industrial revolution, and the importance of discrete mathematics has been gradually recognized by people. The ideas and methods taught in discrete mathematics are widely reflected in various fields of computer science and technology and related majors, from scientific calculation to information processing, from theoretical computer science to computer application technology, from computer software to computer hardware, from artificial intelligence to cognitive system, which are closely related to discrete mathematics.
Because the digital electronic computer is a discrete structure, it can only deal with discrete or discrete quantitative relations. Therefore, both computer science itself and modern scientific research fields closely related to computer science and its application are faced with the problem of how to establish corresponding mathematical models for discrete structures. How to discretize the mathematical model established by continuous quantitative relationship so that it can be processed by computer.
Discrete mathematics is a comprehensive subject which integrates traditional logic, set theory (including function), number theory, algorithm design, combinatorial analysis, discrete probability, relation theory, graph theory and tree, abstract algebra (including algebraic system, group, ring, field, etc.). ), Boolean algebra, computational models (languages and automata) and so on. The application of discrete mathematics covers many fields of modern science and technology.