Classic Problems of Probability

Winner of the 2012 PROSE Award for Mathematics from The AmericanPublishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence.
"A great book, one that I will certainly add to my personallibrary."
--Paul J. Nahin, Professor Emeritus of ElectricalEngineering, University of New Hampshire
Classic Problems of Probability presents a lively accountof the most intriguing aspects of statistics. The book features alarge collection of more than thirty classic probability problemswhich have been carefully selected for their interesting history,the way they have shaped the field, and their counterintuitivenature.
From Cardano's 1564 Games of Chance to Jacob Bernoulli's 1713Golden Theorem to Parrondo's 1996 Perplexing Paradox, the bookclearly outlines the puzzles and problems of probability,interweaving the discussion with rich historical detail and thestory of how the mathematicians involved arrived at theirsolutions. Each problem is given an in-depth treatment, includingdetailed and rigorous mathematical proofs as needed. Some of thefascinating topics discussed by the author include:
* Buffon's Needle problem and its ingenious treatment by JosephBarbier, culminating into a discussion of invariance
* Various paradoxes raised by Joseph Bertrand
* Classic problems in decision theory, including Pascal's Wager,Kraitchik's Neckties, and Newcomb's problem
* The Bayesian paradigm and various philosophies ofprobability
* Coverage of both elementary and more complex problems,including the Chevalier de Méré problems, Fisher and thelady testing tea, the birthday problem and its various extensions,and the Borel-Kolmogorov paradox
Classic Problems of Probability is an eye-opening,one-of-a-kind reference for researchers and professionalsinterested in the history of probability and the variedproblem-solving strategies employed throughout the ages. The bookalso serves as an insightful supplement for courses on mathematicalprobability and introductory probability and statistics at theundergraduate level.