1st Edition

Elementary Probability with Applications

By Larry Rabinowitz Copyright 2005
    208 Pages
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    208 Pages
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    Probability plays an essential role in making decisions in areas such as business, politics, and sports, among others. Professor Rabinowitz, based on many years of teaching, has created a textbook suited for classroom use as well as for self-study that is filled with hundreds of carefully chosen examples based on real-world case studies about sports, elections, drug testing, legal cases, population growth, business, and more. His approach is innovative, practical, and entertaining. Elementary Probability with Applications will serve to enhance classroom instruction, as well as benefit those who want to review the basics of probability at their own pace. The text is used at several colleges and for some high school classes.

    Basic Concepts in Probability Sample Spaces, Events, and Probabilities Simulations Complementary Events and Mutually Exclusive Events Some Probability Rules Problem Solving Problems Conditional Probability and the Multiplication Rule Conditional Probability Multiplication Rule Problems Independence Independence A Technique for Finding P(A or B or C or ...) Problems Combining the Addition and Multiplication Rules Combining the Addition and Multiplication Rules Bayes' Formula Trees Problems Combining the Addition and Multiplication Rules-Applications Simpson's Paradox Randomized Response Designs Applications in Cryptology Hardy-Weinberg Principle Problems Random Variables, Distributions, and Expected Values Random Variables, Distributions, and Expected Values Problems Joint Distributions and Conditional Expectations Joint Distributions Independent Random Variables Conditional Distributions Conditional Expectations Problems Sampling without Replacement Counting Formula Probabilities for Sampling without Replacement Problems Sampling with Replacement Binomial Model Problems Sampling with Replacement (Continued) Binomial Model (Continued) Problems Binomial Tests Introduction Binomial Tests Problems Appendix Short Answers to Selected Exercises Bibliography Index

    Biography

    Larry Rabinowitz has taught mathematics and probability in the mathematics department at The College of William and Mary for thirty years. This book is the result of his extensive teaching experience.

    " ""The chosen approach is practical and entertaining. The book is a useful tool for teachers and for anybody interested in basic ideas and applications of classical probability theory."" -EMS Newsletter, June 2005
    ""This book would be excellent for a minicourse at a higher level of high school as well as a semester course at the college level."" -Larry White, NCTM, October 2005
    ""This book was surprisingly refreshing and did a great job using real situations to motivate techniques for calculating discrete probabilities. . ."" -Technometrics, August 2006
    ""This is a very elementary book on probability which has the merits of clear exposition and ... a host of interesting applications, not just the balls-in-urns variety, but to machine reliability, juries, cryptography, birth control, airline management, and sport."" -D.V. Lindley, The Mathematical Gazette, November 2006
    ""This book is one of the most elementary introductions to probability available."" -Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde, March 2008
    The writing style is quite pleasant, and many interesting examples are given. These applications are, in my opinion, the most interesting part of the book, and include the usual examples from card and other games, but also examples like the frequency of letters in English or detection of drug users. -R. Van Der Hofstad, Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde, March 2008"