40 Puzzles and Problems in Probability and Mathematical Statistics
ISBN: 9780387735122
Platform/Publisher: SpringerLink / Springer New York
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: unlimited; Download: unlimited
Subjects: Mathematics and Statistics;

As a student I discovered in our library a thin booklet by Frederick Mosteller entitled50 Challenging Problems in Probability. Itreferredtoas- plementary "regular textbook" by William Feller, An Introduction to Pro- bilityTheoryanditsApplications.SoItookthisonealong,too,andstartedon the ?rst of Mosteller's problems on the train riding home. From that evening, I caught on to probability. These two books were not primarily about abstract formalisms but rather about basic modeling ideas and about ways -- often extremely elegant ones -- to apply those notions to a surprising variety of empirical phenomena. Essentially, these books taught the reader the skill to "think probabilistically" and to apply simple probability models to real-world problems. The present book is in this tradition; it is based on the view that those cognitive skills are best acquired by solving challenging, nonstandard pro- bility problems. My own experience, both in learning and in teaching, is that challenging problems often help to develop, and to sharpen, our probabilistic intuition much better than plain-style deductions from abstract concepts.


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