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Year: 2006
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About Introduction to Probability:
Excerpts from book and site:
This text is designed for an introductory probability course taken by sophomores, juniors, and seniors in mathematics, the physical and social sciences, engineering, and computer science.
For use in a standard one-term course, in which both discrete and continuous probability is covered, students should have taken as a prerequisite two terms of calculus, including an introduction to multiple integrals. In order to cover Chapter 11, which contains material on Markov chains, some knowledge of matrix theory is necessary.
The text can also be used in a discrete probability course. The material has been organized in such a way that the discrete and continuous probability discussions are presented in a separate, but parallel, manner. This organization dispels an overly rigorous or formal view of probability and offers some strong pedagogical value in that the discrete discussions can sometimes serve to motivate the more abstract continuous probability discussions. For use in a discrete probability course, students should have taken one term of calculus as a prerequisite.
Our book emphasizes the use of computing to simulate experiments and make computations. We have prepared a set of programs to go with the book. We have Mathematica, Maple, and TrueBASIC versions of these programs.
Features
Exercises: There are over 600 exercises in the text providing plenty of opportunity for practicing skills and developing a sound understanding of the ideas. In the exercise sets are routine exercises to be done with and without the use of a computer and more theoretical exercises to improve the understanding of basic concepts.More difficult exercises are indicated by an asterisk. A solution manual for all of the exercises is available to instructors.
Historical remarks: Introductory probability is a subject in which the fundamental ideas are still closely tied to those of the founders of the subject. For this reason, there are numerous historical comments in the text, especially as they deal with the development of discrete probability.
Pedagogical use of computer programs: Probability theory makes predictions about experiments whose outcomes depend upon chance. Consequently, it lends itself beautifully to the use of computers as a mathematical tool to simulate and
analyze chance experiments.
In the text the computer is utilized in several ways. First, it provides a laboratory where chance experiments can be simulated and the students can get a feeling for the variety o such experiments. This use of the computer in probability has been already beautifully illustrated by William Feller in the second edition of his famous text An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications (New York: Wiley, 1950). In the preface, Feller wrote about his treatment of uctuation in coin tossing: "The results are so amazing and so at variance with common intuition that even sophisticated colleagues doubted that coins actually misbehave as theory predicts. The record of a simulated experiment is therefore included."
This text is designed for an introductory probability course taken by sophomores, juniors, and seniors in mathematics, the physical and social sciences, engineering, and computer science.
For use in a standard one-term course, in which both discrete and continuous probability is covered, students should have taken as a prerequisite two terms of calculus, including an introduction to multiple integrals. In order to cover Chapter 11, which contains material on Markov chains, some knowledge of matrix theory is necessary.
The text can also be used in a discrete probability course. The material has been organized in such a way that the discrete and continuous probability discussions are presented in a separate, but parallel, manner. This organization dispels an overly rigorous or formal view of probability and offers some strong pedagogical value in that the discrete discussions can sometimes serve to motivate the more abstract continuous probability discussions. For use in a discrete probability course, students should have taken one term of calculus as a prerequisite.
Our book emphasizes the use of computing to simulate experiments and make computations. We have prepared a set of programs to go with the book. We have Mathematica, Maple, and TrueBASIC versions of these programs.
Features
Exercises: There are over 600 exercises in the text providing plenty of opportunity for practicing skills and developing a sound understanding of the ideas. In the exercise sets are routine exercises to be done with and without the use of a computer and more theoretical exercises to improve the understanding of basic concepts.More difficult exercises are indicated by an asterisk. A solution manual for all of the exercises is available to instructors.
Historical remarks: Introductory probability is a subject in which the fundamental ideas are still closely tied to those of the founders of the subject. For this reason, there are numerous historical comments in the text, especially as they deal with the development of discrete probability.
Pedagogical use of computer programs: Probability theory makes predictions about experiments whose outcomes depend upon chance. Consequently, it lends itself beautifully to the use of computers as a mathematical tool to simulate and
analyze chance experiments.
In the text the computer is utilized in several ways. First, it provides a laboratory where chance experiments can be simulated and the students can get a feeling for the variety o such experiments. This use of the computer in probability has been already beautifully illustrated by William Feller in the second edition of his famous text An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications (New York: Wiley, 1950). In the preface, Feller wrote about his treatment of uctuation in coin tossing: "The results are so amazing and so at variance with common intuition that even sophisticated colleagues doubted that coins actually misbehave as theory predicts. The record of a simulated experiment is therefore included."