Digital Dice (eBook)

Computational Solutions to Practical Probability Problems

Paul Nahin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2013
288 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-4611-5 (ISBN)

Infos

Some probability problems are so difficult that they stump the smartest mathematicians. But even the hardest of these problems can often be solved with a computer and a Monte Carlo simulation, in which a random-number generator simulates a physical process, such as a million rolls of a pair of dice. This is what Digital Dice is all about: how to get numerical answers to difficult probability problems without having to solve complicated mathematical equations. Popular-math writer Paul Nahin challenges readers to solve twenty-one difficult but fun problems, from determining the odds of coin-flipping games to figuring out the behavior of elevators. Problems build from relatively easy (deciding whether a dishwasher who breaks most of the dishes at a restaurant during a given week is clumsy or just the victim of randomness) to the very difficult (tackling branching processes of the kind that had to be solved by Manhattan Project mathematician Stanislaw Ulam). In his characteristic style, Nahin brings the problems to life with interesting and odd historical anecdotes. Readers learn, for example, not just how to determine the optimal stopping point in any selection process but that astronomer Johannes Kepler selected his second wife by interviewing eleven women. The book shows readers how to write elementary computer codes using any common programming language, and provides solutions and line-by-line walk-throughs of a MATLAB code for each problem. Digital Dice will appeal to anyone who enjoys popular math or computer science. In a new preface, Nahin wittily addresses some of the responses he received to the first edition.

Autor

Paul J. Nahin is the author of many best-selling popular-math books, including Chases and Escapes, Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula, When Least is Best, Duelling Idiots and Other Probability Puzzlers, and An Imaginary Tale (all Princeton). He is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.3.2013
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Puzzlers
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Puzzlers
• Zusatzinfo: 1 halftone. 31 line illus. 22 tables.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Freizeit / Hobby ► Spielen / Raten
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Computerprogramme / Computeralgebra
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Accuracy and precision • Addition • algorithm • Almost surely • Arthritis • average • ballot • Binomial coefficient • Bus • Calculation • College of Cardinals • computer programming • Computer Scientist • conditional expectation • Conviction • court • Customer • Deliberation • Desk • dishwasher • Elaboration • error • estimation • expected value • Explanation • exponential distribution • Fair coin • Floor and ceiling functions • Flowchart • flow diagram • Geometric probability • Hardcover • histogram • Holy Roman Empire • Imperial election • Inclusion–exclusion principle • Integer • King of the Romans • Location (geography) • Matching (graph theory) • Mathematical problem • mathematician • Mathematics • Mathworks • MATLAB • Medicine Man • Monte Carlo Method • New Trial • Notation • Nuclear fission product • nuclear weapon • Papal conclave • Parameter (computer programming) • percentage • petitioner • physicist • Police car • polynomial • Pope Eugene IV • Prince-elector • Probability • Probability density function • Probability Distribution • Probability Theory • Problem Statement • Pure Mathematics • Quantity • Random Number • random number generation • random permutation • Random Variable • result • Sample Size • Sample space • Sampling (Statistics) • Server (computing) • Simulation • sorting algorithm • Special case • Stanislaw Ulam • statistician • Stochastic process • Subroutine • Suffrage • Summation • Textbook • Thinning • toilet paper • Traffic Flow • Traffic Light • Umbrella • Uniform distribution (discrete) • Unit square • Uranium-235 • Variable (computer science) • Variable (mathematics) • Variance • variance reduction • Voting • While loop
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-4611-0 / 1400846110
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-4611-5 / 9781400846115