Day 1: CM, Page i

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove -
the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return.
Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will - sing from our time too.
- The Odyssey

Day 1. Page i. Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation For Computer Science. Graham, Knuth, Patashnik. The prologue to the old testament of computer science. Its cover is imprinted with a giant Σ. It's ominous and absolute. It's mysterious. It's like the moon. I have a plan. I'm going to read all the Knuth books starting with the Concrete Mathematics (CM). One page a day. For 2907 days. To be completed on Nov 3, 2016. Brilliant!

Page i is easy. The title page: CONCRETE MATHEMATICS Second Editition. Dedicated to Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783). Done! No sweat! 2906 pages to go.

Wait a minute. What is concrete mathematics? According to wikipedia, it's... it's this book. That's not very helpful. What else? It "'is a blend of CONtinuous and disCRETE mathematics' and calculus is frequently used in the explanations and exercises" (uh oh. I don't remember much calculus). And "the term is also used to denote the opposite of abstract mathematics" (that sounds good). And of, course, the cover is a picture of concrete with a mathematical symbol. Get it? Concrete mathematics! Second edition? The first edition was published in 1988. The second edition was published in 1994. There is no third edition. Dedicated to Euler? Why Euler?

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function.^[3] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Ok. But what else?

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time. He is also one of the most prolific; his collected works fill 60–80 quarto volumes.^[4] A statement attributed to Pierre-Simon Laplace expresses Euler's influence on mathematics: "Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master [i.e., teacher] of us all."^[5]

Ok! Maybe when I'm done with Knuth. This is Euler. Maybe we'll have a picture of Knuth tomorrow.