In these notes we give you examples of the work of humans that is called mathematics. Some will seem like strange constructions. We give practical applications of all of these.
The topics do not depend on any other mathematical knowledge from courses the students have taken in the past. The presentation is rigorous but basic enough for its intended audience to follow. The content of the course includes applications that are relevant for the digital age as well as pure mathematics that are linked to other liberal arts disciplines. The course culminates with the topic of public key cryptography.
The student learning outcomes (SLOs) of a course based on these notes are:
Objectives
Compute with integers, sets, and functions, and in groups.
Apply integers, sets, functions, and groups in the encoding and encryption of information
Communicate statements about integers, sets, functions, and groups
After the title of each section there is such a yellow box that contains a list of tasks that a student should be a able to perform after working through the section and the corresponding exercises. These student learning outcomes tell you what you should be able to do and thus are very useful in preparing for exams.
Some of the student learning outcomes require other topics from the chapter that are not explicitly mentioned in the outcomes themselves. You will need a good understanding of all the topics covered in the chapter in order to master the topics in the student learning outcomes.
