Chance: A guide to gambling, love, the stock market & just about everything else

by Amir D. Aczel

Paperback, 2004

Call number

519.2

Genres

General Nonfiction

Science & Nature

Collection

Previously Owned

Publication

New York : Thunder's Mouth Press, c2004.

Pages

xiii; 161

Description

In Chance, celebrated mathematician Amir D. Aczel turns his sights on probability theory--the branch of mathematics that measures the likelihood of a random event. He explains probability in clear, layman's terms, and shows its practical applications. What is commonly called luck has mathematical roots and in Chance, you'll learn to increase your odds of success in everything from true love to the stock market. For thousands of years, the twin forces of chance and mischance have beguiled humanity like none other. Why does fortune smile on some people, and smirk on others? What is luck, and why does it so often visit the undeserving? How can we predict the random events happening around us? Even better, how can we manipulate them? In this delightful and lucid voyage through the realm of the random, Dr. Aczel once again makes higher mathematics intelligible to us.… (more)

Language

English

Original publication date

2004

Physical description

xiii, 161 p.; 7.9 inches

ISBN

9781560257943

User reviews

LibraryThing member themulhern

Slender volume, good in parts, but patchy and not very well edited. The substitution of "match" for "natch" (short for naturally) really jumps out at the reader.

The nineteen chapters are quite short. I'ld say that the chapter 1 through 11 are all quite good. The remaining chapters are inferior for

several reasons. The formulas are exceedingly poorly typeset, so as to be nearly incomprehensible. Sometimes, several reductions are required to arrive at a simplified or numeric solution; these reductions are even less readable than the individual formulas. Some of the applications of probability are unconvincing or stupid. As the claims get larger the amount of supporting mathematics presented is simply not enough to back them up, so they seem vacuous. The problems are fun, and the von Neumann device introduced in one problem is clever and pleasing.

The frequent mention of Persi Diaconis reminds me of the one time when he was a guest lecturer at the UW-Madison when I was a graduate student. As math lectures go his was memorable.

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