| Chances Are . . .: Adventures in Probability Contributor(s): Kaplan, Michael (Author), Kaplan, Ellen (Author) |
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ISBN: 0143038346 ISBN-13: 9780143038344 Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr OUR PRICE: $22.80 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2007 Annotation: Combining philosophical and historical background, "Chances Are" is a lay person's journey into the realm of probability--from poker to politics, weather to war, Monte Carlo to mortality. Illustrations. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Mathematics | Probability & Statistics - General - Science | Applied Sciences - Technology & Engineering | Reference |
| Dewey: 519.2 |
| Physical Information: 0.73" H x 5.36" W x 7.94" (0.60 lbs) 336 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A compelling journey through history, mathematics, and philosophy, charting humanity's struggle against randomness Our lives are played out in the arena of chance. However little we recognize it in our day-to-day existence, we are always riding the odds, seeking out certainty but settling--reluctantly--for likelihood, building our beliefs on the shadowy props of probability. Chances Are is the story of man's millennia-long search for the tools to manage the recurrent but unpredictable--to help us prevent, or at least mitigate, the seemingly random blows of disaster, disease, and injustice. In these pages, we meet the brilliant individuals who developed the first abstract formulations of probability, as well as the intrepid visionaries who recognized their practical applications--from gamblers to military strategists to meteorologists to medical researchers, from blackjack to our own mortality. |