text: can you tell me what discrete mathematics is all about? how important is sequences, series(maclaurin, taylor and fourier0 to computer programming? well, maybe not what it is *all* about that's a rather large topic.  in discrete math, numbers are restricted to certain values or, another way of saying the same thing, there is a finite difference between the numbers that can exist. contrast this with a continuous number system, in which, for any two numbers that are not equal, you can find infinitely many numbers that lie between them in value.  for example,  the integers are a discrete number system, whereas the reals are a continuous number system.  computer math is inherently discrete, although it can in many cases form a useful approximation to a continuous system.  the series that you mention have been developed for continuous number systems, but i believe they have analogues for discrete systems.