Description
Book SynopsisElementary Probability with Applications, Second Edition shows students how probability has practical uses in many different fields, such as business, politics, and sports. In the book, students learn about probability concepts from real-world examples rather than theory.
The text explains how probability models with underlying assumptions are used to model actual situations. It contains examples of probability models as they relate to:
- Bloc voting
- Population genetics
- Doubling strategies in casinos
- Machine reliability
- Airline management
- Cryptology
- Blood testing
- Dogs resembling owners
- Drug detection
- Jury verdicts
- Coincidences
- Number of concert hall aisles
- 2000 U.S. presidential election
- Points after deuce in tennis
- Tests regarding intelligent dogs
- Music composition
Based on the author's course at The
Trade Review
Praise for the First Edition:"It is desirable that all citizens have an elementary understanding of probability [so] that they better appreciate the uncertainty that surrounds them. Anyone teaching such citizens should consider using this book because, through its applications, it conveys something of the power of probability."
—D.V. Lindley, Mathematical Gazette, November 2006
"This book was surprisingly refreshing and did a great job using real situations to motivate techniques for calculating discrete probabilities."
—Technometrics, August 2006
"The problems are graded from fairly straightforward to very challenging and the book is, for this reason at least, a welcome addition to the literature."
—MAA Reviews, October 2005
"This book would be excellent for a minicourse at a higher level of high school as well as a semester course at the college level."
—Larry White, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), October 2005
"The chosen approach is practical and entertaining. The book is a useful tool for teachers and anybody interested in basic ideas and applications of classical probability theory."
—EMS Newsletter, June 2005
Table of ContentsBasic Concepts in Probability. Conditional Probability and the Multiplication Rule. Independence. Combining the Addition and Multiplication Rules. Combining the Addition and Multiplication Rules—Applications. Random Variables, Distributions, and Expected Values. Joint Distributions and Conditional Expectations. Sampling without Replacement. Sampling with Replacement. Sampling with Replacement (Continued). Binomial Tests. Appendix. Short Answers to Selected Exercises. Bibliography. Index.
