Chance Rules

by Everitt, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780387781297
• ISBN10: 0387781293
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-30
• Publisher: Copernicus Books

Summary

Chance continues to govern our lives in the 21 st Century. From the genes we inherit and the environment into which we are born, to the lottery ticket we buy at the local store, much of life is a gamble. In business, education, travel, health, and marriage, we take chances in the hope of obtaining something better. Chance colors our lives with uncertainty, and so it is important to examine it and try to understand about how it operates in a number of different circumstances. Such understanding becomes simpler if we take some time to learn a little about probability, since probability is the natural language of uncertainty.This second edition of Chance Rules again recounts the story of chance through history and the various ways it impacts on our lives. Here you can read about the earliest gamblers who thought that the fall of the dice was controlled by the gods, as well as the modern geneticist and quantum theory researcher trying to integrate aspects of probability into their chosen speciality. Example included in the first addition such as the infamous Monty Hall problem, tossing coins, coincidences, horse racing, birthdays and babies remain, often with an expanded discussion, in this edition. Additional material in the second edition includes, a probabilistic explanation of why things were better when you were younger, consideration of whether you can use probability to prove the existence of God, how long you may have to wait to win the lottery, some court room dramas, predicting the future, and how evolution scores over creationism. Chance Rules lets you learn about probability without complex mathematics.

Author Biography

Brian Everitt is Professor Emeritus at King's College, London.

Table of Contents

A Brief History of Chance	p. 1
What Are the Chances? Assigning Probabilities	p. 13
Choice and Chance; Permutations and Combinations	p. 19
Tossing Coins and Having Babies	p. 25
Rolling Dice	p. 39
Gambling for Fun: Lotteries and Football Pools	p. 47
Serious Gambling: Roulette, Cards and Horse Racing	p. 55
Balls, Birthdays and Coincidences	p. 77
Conditional Probability and the Reverend Thomas Bayes	p. 87
Puzzling Probabilities	p. 105
Taking Risks	p. 121
Statistics, Statisticians and Medicine	p. 135
Alternative Therapies-Panaceas or Placebos?	p. 155
What Does the Future Hold?	p. 169
Chance, Chaos and Chromosomes	p. 183
Epilogue	p. 199
Sources	p. 201
Index	p. 203
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.