Elementary Number Theory

About this book

This practical and versatile text evolved from the authors years of teaching experience and the input of his students. Vanden Eynden strives to alleviate the anxiety that many students experience when approaching any proof-oriented area of mathematics including number theory. His informal yet straightforward writing style explains the ideas behind the process of proof construction showing that mathematicians develop theorems and proofs from trial and error and evolutionary improvement not spontaneous insight. Furthermore the book includes more computational problems than most other number theory texts to build students familiarity and confidence with the theory behind the material. The author has devised the content organization and writing style so that information is accessible students can gain self-confidence with respect to mathematics and the book can be used in a wide range of coursefrom those that emphasize history and type A problems to those that are proof oriented.