Discrete Probability

"Discrete Probability" is an introductory textbook for a first course in probability theory. The book comprises a collection of 405 problems with answers at the end of the book. Half page long biographical essays give the reader insights in the lifes of such famous contributors to probability as Fermat, Pascal, Laplace, Bayes, Bernoulli, Stirling, Markov, and many others. A wide range of readers will enjoy this book and it should be useful in the undergraduate programs at many colleges and universities.

No knowledge of calculus required - Includes short biographical essays of some of the famous contributions to probability, including Fermat, Pascal, Laplace, Bayes, Bernoulli and Markov - The book comprises an abundance of 405 problems (with answers) to clarify topics.

Zusammenfassung
"The strength of the book are undoubtedly its exercises (over 400 of them), all with numerical solutions, and the many interesting remarks on the history of probability theory and biographies of important personalities that are scattered throughout the book."
European Mathematical Society Newsletter, December 2000

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 2 Counting.- 2.1 order counts, with replacement.- 2.2 order counts, without replacement.- 2.3 order does not count, without replacement.- 2.4 order does not count, with replacement.- 3 Independence and Conditional Probability.- 3.1 Independence.- 3.2 Bernoulli Trials.- 3.3 The Most Likely Number of Successes.- 3.4 Conditional Probability.- 4 Random Variables.- 4.1 Expected Value and Variance.- 4.2 Computation of Expected Value and Variance.- 5 More About Random Variables.- 5.1 The Law of Large Numbers.- 5.2 Conditional Probability.- 5.3 Computation of Variance.- 6 Approximating Probabilities.- 6.1 The Poisson Distribution.- 6.2 Stirling's Formula.- 6.3 The Normal Distribution.- 7 Generating Functions.- 8 Random Walks.- 8.1 The Probability Peter Wins.- 8.2 The Duration of Play.- 9 Markov Chains.- 9.1 What Is a Markov Chain?.- 9.2 Where Do We Get and How Often?.- 9.3 How Long Does It Take?.- 9.4 What Happens in the Long Run?.- Table of Important Distributions.- Answers.