Lec 1 | MIT 6.042J Mathematics for Computer Science, Fall 2010

Nothing like procrastinating by watching a lecture from 12 years ago on a course I have no knowledge on

when i see a professor ask his class ,have you ever seen a " for all " symbol, shows his dedication to make sure that every one  understand what he is teaching

The writing on the chalkboard and knowing i'm not paying for this class is so relaxing.

00:24 What's a proof? 02:02 How to ascertain truth? 07:30 What's a mathematical proof? 08:47 What's the definition of proposition? 09:50 What's '∀'? 10:10 What's a prime number? 10:43 What's predicate? 11:17 What's the universe of discourse? 11:29 What's quantifier? 16:27 What's "∃"? 28:45 What's "→"? 30:00 What's "↔"? 35:55 What's axiom? 40:34 What's consistency of axiom? 41:25 What's completeness of axiom?

I'm commenting here, so that my grandchildren will think their grandad is a smart guy

These lectures are clear and comprehensible and you think to yourself, "I can do MIT". Then you read the recitations and homework assignments and realize why MIT is known to be so tough.

I like this professor. He doesn't seem to put anyone down and looks to enjoy what he's doing.

I want to sit in one of theses classes just to raise my hand and ask " When drawing a "4" should I leave the top of it open or closed?"

Thank you Professor Leighton. Your lectures got me an A in my Discrete Mathematics course.

It is a great pleasure to listen to this legend who is not only an extraordinary Math professor but also the co-founder of Akamai Technologies, a billion dollar company!! Regards from India!

I'm in awe of these MIT OCW professors. They explain everything in such a coherent and understandable way. I love how they write their notes as they speak. If only any one of my professors were this good at their jobs, I'd be very happy.

What an amazing professor! seems fun and that 44 mins flew by so I can only imagine how quickly a 1 hour lecture would go. I'm a Computer Science major and I review these lectures on top of my studies I truly am thankful MIT makes these viewable.

I am a senior high school student from Greece and just randomly stepped on one of the best "gems" I could find. This lecture indeed indicates how easy it is, but in reality difficult, to think and parallel everyday life with mathematics. It is really unique to see a very unconventional, for our country's educational standards, way of engaging mathematics in a more philosophical and applied manner than ever. I am truly glad to the man or woman that was assigned to list these lectures on Youtube, it is a really beautiful and entertaining way for me to spend my free time. I often listen to consults that by thinking that you will never attend any such classes in person or be able to study them abroad you are only limiting yourself and your dreams. So seeing these is a true way of forgetting my worries for my future studies in Applied mathematics. Thanks again to anyone from filming this and capturing audio to the professor and the man or woman who uploaded this unique playlist.

You know the lession is great when you can learn not only maths but even more things from it

This first lecture is a fine introduction to logic, proofs in mathematics and number theory. All these topics are huge in mathematics. Professor Leighton introduces these topics for each computer science student to think theoretical and analytical about this class and beyond.

Thank you for spreading the love for education! Helps us who can't afford college.

What a great man is this teacher. All the teachings he gave are in the MIT Mathematics for CS book, but the interaction, the examples and the way he explains, are a good complement to the book.

Strange this lecture was suggested by YouTube on Thanksgiving. The world should be thankful for my childhood mentor & visionary MIT EE professor Dr. Jordan Baruch, in 1960 managed the computer center. At 9 had done analog & digital designs when one Saturday took me to the lab. Asked his students and the operators to show me the ropes. That day learned IBM 026 keypunch & Fortran. Then special night lectures like Grace Hopper Nanosecond, think it was E51.

Professors that take the time to write down a good deal of what they lecture on are highly underappreciated. This allows students sufficient time to think about the material during lectures instead of wasting their brain's resources in trying to figure out what is important enough to be written down. This is the first professor I have seen on MIT OpenCourseWare to do this. Does anyone know of other professors like this? I truly dislike the professor who rambles on endlessly without writing a thing on the board and expecting students to figure out for themselves what is and what isn't important enough to be written down. It is basically their job to let us know what we should take note of and study to succeed in their course.

What a fantastic teacher. This should be the standard. Top drawer!