Research Catalog

Title

Chance : a guide to gambling, love, the stock market, & just about everything else / Amir D. Aczel.

Author

Aczel, Amir D.

Publication

New York : Thunder's Mouth Press, c2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 161 p. : ill.; 20 cm.

Summary

Chance defines our life. Will you get the job, the lover, the money? Now Amir Aczel, in this slim book modeled on his very successful Fermat's Last Theorem, gives readers the tools to minimize, or maximize, chance's effect on their lives. Chance marks Aczel's return to his preferred field: the popularization of mathematics. Here, Aczel explores probability theory and its daily, practical applications, while along the way relating stories of inveterate gamblers who also happen to be mathematical geniuses. With the clarity of the statistician he once was, Aczel analyzes what is commonly known as luck. Alongside chapters on Surprising Birthday Problem, Coincidences, and How to Make Great Decisions are a history of probability theory and anecdotes of its daily applications.

Subject

• Chance
• Probabilities
• Probability

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 161).

Contents

Introduction -- 1. What is probability? -- 2. Measuring the probability -- 3. The law of unions -- 4. Independence of events -- 5. Subjective probability -- 6. The complement of an event, and the union of independent events -- 7. Random walks and the gambler's ruin -- 8. What is randomness? -- 9. Pascal's triangle -- 10. The inspection paradox -- 11. The birthday problem-- 12. Coincidences -- 13. How to succeed in love (find the best apartment, or adopt the best puppy) -- 14. How to make decisions under uncertainty -- 15. Game strategies -- 16. Bayes's theorem -- 17. The normal curve -- 18. Understanding the presidential election (and other) polls -- 19. Conclusion -- A few problems ... -- Answers.

ISBN

1568583168 (hc)

LCCN

^^2004304723

OCLC

56620857

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library