Research Catalog
Randomness
- Title
- Randomness / Deborah J. Bennett.
- Author
- Bennett, Deborah J., 1950-
- Publication
- Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1998.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | QA273 .B46 1998 | Off-site |
Details
- Description
- 238 pages : illustrations; 19 cm
- Summary
- This book is aimed at the trouble with trying to learn about probability. A story of the misconceptions and difficulties civilization overcame in progressing toward probabilistic thinking, Randomness is also a skillful account of what makes the science of probability so daunting in our own time.
- To acquire a (correct) intuition of chance is not easy to begin with, and moving from an intuitive sense to a formal notion of probability presents further problems. Author Deborah Bennett traces the path this process takes in an individual trying to come to grips with concepts of uncertainty and fairness, and charts the parallel course by which societies have developed ideas about randomness and determinacy.
- Subject
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [209]-231) and index.
- Contents
- 1. Chance Encounters -- 2. Why Resort to Chance? -- 3. When the Gods Played Dice -- 4. Figuring the Odds -- 5. Mind Games for Gamblers -- 6. Chance or Necessity? -- 7. Order in Apparent Chaos -- 8. Wanted: Random Numbers -- 9. Randomness as Uncertainty -- 10. Paradoxes in Probability.
- ISBN
- 0674107454
- LCCN
- 97035054
- OCLC
- 37675705
- ocm37675705
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries