Chance: a Guide to Gambling, Love, the Stock Market, and Just About Everything Else.AMIR D. ACZEL Our fascination with chance dates to prehistoric times, when cavemen rolled dice made of sheep bones. Ever since then, games of chance have been prevalent in many cultures. There is some evidence in the Talmud that rabbis toyed with concepts of probability to determine tax distributions, paternity The state or condition of a father; the relationship of a father. English and U.S. Common Law have recognized the importance of establishing the paternity of children. in cases of adultery adultery Sexual relations between a married person and someone other than his or her spouse. Prohibitions against adultery are found in virtually every society; Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all condemn it, and in some Islamic countries it is still punishable by , and other Issues where uncertainty played a role. But the idea of mathematical probability theory probability theory Branch of mathematics that deals with analysis of random events. Probability is the numerical assessment of likelihood on a scale from 0 (impossibility) to 1 (absolute certainty). did not take shape until the 1600s, when Blaise Pascal tried to help a friend who had asked for help toward beating the casinos. We still don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. with certainty who will get struck by lightening lightening /light·en·ing/ (lit´en-ing) the sensation of decreased abdominal distention produced by the descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity, two to three weeks before labor begins. , or profit from a stock portfolio, but Aczel shows that the tenets of probability theory can allow people to make educated guesses about the likelihood of a random event. Aczel, a mathematician and an author of many popular math books, breaks down probability theory for readers and clearly shows how a working knowledge of it can help anyone navigate the decisions he or she must make every day. Thunders Mouth Pr, 2004, 161 p., b&w illus., hardcover, $21.00. |
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