A Taste of Pure Mathematics

This book provides a “crash course” in beginning pure mathematics. The book contains six chapters. Chapter 1 covers logic and proofs, introducing the reader to sentential and predicate calculus and mathematical induction. After two introductory sections of sentential logic and the connectives -- and, or, not, if then, if and only if – the author moves up the logical ladder to predicate logic and the universal and existential quantifiers and variables. Chapter 2 examines sets and counting, including an introduction to counting, including permutations, combinations, and the pigeonhole principle. Next, Chapter 3, introduces order relations and the idea of the image and inverse image of a set, concepts important in analysis and topology. A brief tutorial on the complex numbers, a subject often overlooked in undergraduate curricula, is covered in Chapter 4. Next, Chapter 5 introduces a number of sides to topology and covers the basic ideas of point-set topology required for hard analysis, including open and closed sets, limit points, interior, exterior and boundary of a set, and so on. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a brief introduction to symmetries and abstract groups, rings and fields. The book contains many problems for readers of all interests and abilities in each section.