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Prof Peter Allen

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Data Science. This course is available on the BSc in Actuarial Science and BSc in Mathematics, Statistics and Business. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

Students should have taken, or be taking concurrently, the course Mathematical Methods (MA100), or the course Quantitative Methods (Mathematics) (MA107).

The course is an introduction to the use of formal definitions and proofs in mathematics, and to basic results of elementary logic, set theory and analysis. Specific topics covered are as follows: Logic, sets and functions, relations, real numbers, infimum and supremum, sequences, limits and continuity.

This course is intended as preparation for a student interested in the application of mathematical concepts and proof to subjects such as computer science (in particular the analysis of algorithms) and economics.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 40 hours across Michaelmas Term.

Students will be expected to produce 10 problem sets in the MT.

Written answers to set problems will be expected on a weekly basis.

Students may wish to have one of the recommended textbooks:

• N L Biggs, Discrete Mathematics (2nd edn) or
• P J Eccles, An Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning, but these are not required.

Further background reading can be found in:

• R Allenby, Numbers and Proofs;
• M Liebeck, A Concise Introduction to Pure Mathematics;
• V Bryant, Yet Another Introduction to Analysis, and;
• R Bartle & D Sherbert, Introduction to Real Analysis.

Exam (90%, duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes) in the summer exam period.
Continuous assessment (10%) in the MT.