Good books on elementary number theory?

Orsorum

Lifer
Dec 26, 2001
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Title says it all.

I've taken calculus, differential equations, matrix algebra, mathematical modeling, probability... learning some proofs and suchlike at the moment. What might be a good book or two to get me started?
 

Darein

Platinum Member
Nov 14, 2000
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Hehe, I don't even have to look at who wrote it, just the title gives it away as written by you. You have quite the interest in math, question, are you planning on a minor or just interested in a non-scholastic capacity?

Edit:
My grammer is that of a 4th grader. :(
 

Orsorum

Lifer
Dec 26, 2001
27,631
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Originally posted by: Darein
Hehe, I don't even have to look at who wrote it, just the title gives it away as written by you. You have quite the interest in math, question, are you planning on a minor or just interested in a non-scholastic capacity?

Edit:
My grammer is that of a 4th grader. :(

lol

At least you can admit it. :p

I'm interested in the subject, is all. I might consider a math major later on, but I'll see how I do in the next two quarters.
 

Darein

Platinum Member
Nov 14, 2000
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Originally posted by: Zakath15
Originally posted by: Darein
Hehe, I don't even have to look at who wrote it, just the title gives it away as written by you. You have quite the interest in math, question, are you planning on a minor or just interested in a non-scholastic capacity?

Edit:
My grammer is that of a 4th grader. :(

lol

At least you can admit it. :p

I'm interested in the subject, is all. I might consider a math major later on, but I'll see how I do in the next two quarters.

Math major. :Q Math people are kinda.... weird. You can usually tell a math person apart from a big crowd is all.
 

KingNothing

Diamond Member
Apr 6, 2002
7,141
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Originally posted by: Darein
Originally posted by: Zakath15
Originally posted by: Darein
Hehe, I don't even have to look at who wrote it, just the title gives it away as written by you. You have quite the interest in math, question, are you planning on a minor or just interested in a non-scholastic capacity?

Edit:
My grammer is that of a 4th grader. :(

lol

At least you can admit it. :p

I'm interested in the subject, is all. I might consider a math major later on, but I'll see how I do in the next two quarters.

Math major. :Q Math people are kinda.... weird. You can usually tell a math person apart from a big crowd is all.

Indeed. One time I caught myself forming the integrals and calculating the volume of a conical sculpture outside our science building. It was about then I decided I needed to put the math books down for the rest of the day.
 

Orsorum

Lifer
Dec 26, 2001
27,631
5
81
Originally posted by: Darein
Hehe, I don't even have to look at who wrote it, just the title gives it away as written by you. You have quite the interest in math, question, are you planning on a minor or just interested in a non-scholastic capacity?

Edit:
My grammer is that of a 4th grader. :(

Geeez, man, how many posts have you made tonight?!?!?
 

Peetoeng

Golden Member
Dec 21, 2000
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If you are in CS, you might have had it. My statistics prof used a chapter from this book: Concrete Mathematics (one of the author is the creator of TeX). It's good elementary text for occasional reviews.
 

Orsorum

Lifer
Dec 26, 2001
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Originally posted by: Peetoeng
If you are in CS, you might have had it. My statistics prof used a chapter from this book: Concrete Mathematics (one of the author is the creator of TeX). It's good elementary text for occasional reviews.

Not a CS Major (Economics, maybe math)... but I will look into the book (interesting tidbit about the author, I must say).
 

gopunk

Lifer
Jul 7, 2001
29,239
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Originally posted by: Peetoeng
If you are in CS, you might have had it. My statistics prof used a chapter from this book: Concrete Mathematics (one of the author is the creator of TeX). It's good elementary text for occasional reviews.

donald knuth?
 

Orsorum

Lifer
Dec 26, 2001
27,631
5
81
Originally posted by: gopunk
Originally posted by: Peetoeng
If you are in CS, you might have had it. My statistics prof used a chapter from this book: Concrete Mathematics (one of the author is the creator of TeX). It's good elementary text for occasional reviews.

donald knuth?

That's what I was thinking...
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
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I have the Knuth book it's pretty good. My copy's a decade old so it's probably even better now :)

Knuth isn't just the TeX guy, he's also the algorithms guy, wrote a couple of the standard reference texts (which is what got him started on typesetting / desktop publishing).
 

Cerebus451

Golden Member
Nov 30, 2000
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This is the book for the class in Number Theory I took ~12 years ago. Of course, it was only the second edition back then. Can't remember much about the text (though it is sitting on the shelf here at work), though I thoroughly enjoyed the class. Of course, that might have more to do with the professor than the text.
 

Darein

Platinum Member
Nov 14, 2000
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Originally posted by: Zakath15
Originally posted by: Darein
Hehe, I don't even have to look at who wrote it, just the title gives it away as written by you. You have quite the interest in math, question, are you planning on a minor or just interested in a non-scholastic capacity?

Edit:
My grammer is that of a 4th grader. :(

Geeez, man, how many posts have you made tonight?!?!?

Its a day later, but in response to your question, too many, wayyyy too many.
 

StormRider

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2000
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I didn't really like the book we used when I took number theory at UMD so I bought another book that I thought was pretty good. It's "Elementary Number Theory" by David M. Burton.

Actually, now that I'm skimming over the original book, it doesn't seem that bad. Here is the original book we used in class:

"Introduction to Number Theory" by William K. Adams and Larry Joel Goldstein.
 

StormRider

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2000
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If you like Number Theory, you should think about taking Abstract Algebra. That was one of my favorite courses at UMD. I couldn't handle it at the grad level though -- didn't know if it was because I wasn't mentally up to it or because of the lingering sadness I suffer from.
 

Orsorum

Lifer
Dec 26, 2001
27,631
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Originally posted by: StormRider
If you like Number Theory, you should think about taking Abstract Algebra. That was one of my favorite courses at UMD. I couldn't handle it at the grad level though -- didn't know if it was because I wasn't mentally up to it or because of the lingering sadness I suffer from.

Lingering depression sucks.
 

Legendary

Diamond Member
Jan 22, 2002
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Indeed. One time I caught myself forming the integrals and calculating the volume of a conical sculpture outside our science building. It was about then I decided I needed to put the math books down for the rest of the day.

Good to know I'm not the only one doing that. Calculus is scary - it has gotten into my head. However I do plan on being a math major so maybe it comes with the territory.

Of course I haven't even taken college level math courses yet so I'm sure there's more scaryness to come.
For obvious reasons I can't help you answer your question - sorry :(.