EBOOK Probability: A Very Short Introduction

Making good decisions under conditions of uncertainty - which is the norm -        requires a sound appreciation of the way random chance works. As analysis and        modelling of most aspects of the world, and all measurement, are necessarily        imprecise and involve uncertainties of varying degrees, the understanding and        management of probabilities is central to much work in the sciences and economics.In        this Very Short Introduction, John Haigh introduces the ideas of probability and        different philosophical approaches to probability, and gives a brief account of the        history of development of probability theory, from Galileo and Pascal to Bayes,        Laplace, Poisson, and Markov. He describes the basic probability distributions, and        goes on to discuss a wide range of applications in science, economics, and a variety        of other contexts such as games and betting. He concludes with anintriguing        discussion of coincidences and some curious paradoxes.