The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.14 (759 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0374175349 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-11-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
These events, while astounding, are nonetheless to be expected, as mathematics professor Hand capably explains in this well-plotted book. From Booklist Multiple lottery wins. The principle hinges on the idea that seemingly improbable events, from the individual to the cosmic level, are commonplace due to several factors. Lightning striking the same person several times. Unexpected financial meltdowns. A touch of levity goes a long way toward making the subject engaging. Academic but not dry, the concepts are presented in a relevant way and at a good clip, with some eye-catching examples. Far from being disillusioning or removing the magic from these events, the elegant framework beneath marvelous events is something worth marveling at in itself. As Hand shows, probabilities are also about people—what we view as remarkable and why. --Bridget Thoreson . For those interested in an understanding of the principles of probability, t
Hand lives in London, England. Hand is an emeritus professor of mathematics and a senior research investigator at Imperial College London. David J. He is the former president of the Royal Statistical Society and the chief scientific adviser to Winton Capital Management, one of Europe's most successful algorithmic-trading hedge funds. He is the author of seven books, in
"Dull as it gets" according to Skeptical by nature. I've read a lot of books on statistics, both texts for work and more casual books for entertainment value. This is among the worst that I have read.The examples are dull, recycled, and mostly uninteresting. The concepts seem too basic for the length of the book. And in the end it just is not interesting. Pass on this one.When I read one star reviews, I often wish the reviewers would tell me what they did enjoy, so that I could calibrate their review and, potentially, so that I could find something better. So here I'll do that. Here are two books of si. Frank Scoblete author of Confessions of a Wayward Catholic said Do You Gamble? This Book is for You.. You are at the craps table and the 1"Do You Gamble? This Book is for You." according to Frank Scoblete author of Confessions of a Wayward Catholic. You are at the craps table and the 12 rolls four times in a row. The odds of that happening are immense. At blackjack, two people come to the table at the same time and both get blackjacks --- back to back. After that you watch their play and they are not advantage players. They don’t even know basic strategy. A guy hits two inside numbers in a row at roulette. Then he bets the outside red and black and wins six in a row!The same woman wins two lotteries in New Jersey. Two people, a father and a son, have train accidents on the same day in two s. rolls four times in a row. The odds of that happening are immense. At blackjack, two people come to the table at the same time and both get blackjacks --- back to back. After that you watch their play and they are not advantage players. They don’t even know basic strategy. A guy hits two inside numbers in a row at roulette. Then he bets the outside red and black and wins six in a row!The same woman wins two lotteries in New Jersey. Two people, a father and a son, have train accidents on the same day in two s. Another five-star review In the last year, I've read four or five books on probability. This one is the best of the lot. It's clear, entertaining, and easy to understand.People long for miracles. Everywhere you look there are charlatans ready to sell you a lottery ticket or a hot new stock and clean out your bank account. Even if no financial harm is involved, a belief in miracles and superstition can encourage an attitude of fatalism and passivity, diverting attention from real solutions to pressing problems.This book is the antidote to that kind of ignorance and passivity.
No mystical or supernatural explanation is necessary to understand why someone is lucky enough to win the lottery twice, or is destined to be hit by lightning three times and still survive. In fact, they're commonplace. Together, these constitute Hand's groundbreaking Improbability Principle. Not only that, we should all expect to experience a miracle roughly once every month. All we need, Hand argues, is a firm grounding in a powerful set of laws: the laws of inevitability, of truly large numbers, of selection, of the probability lever, and of near enough. Along the way, he teaches us how to use the Improbability Principle in our own livesincluding how to cash in at a casino and how to recognize when a medicine is truly effective. An irresistible adventure into the laws behind "chance" moments and a trusty guide