Printer-friendly page
Type of Speech: 
Definition: 

a branch of mathematics that focuses on the study of objects and ideas that can be divided into separated or discontinuous parts.

Additional Information: 

Discrete mathematics problems can be classified into three broad categories:

  • Existence problems deal with whether or not a given problem has a solution
  • Counting problems investigate how many solutions may exist for problems with known solutions
  • Optimization problems focus on finding a best solution to a particular problem

Specific topics include logic, set theory, number theory, combinatorics, graph theory, algorithmics, information theory, computability and complexity, probability theory, and linear algebra. Common applications include game theory and election theory.