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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
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Searching... | 30000003592999 | QA273 T32 2004 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Probability deals with measuring the likelihood of a particular outcome or event. Statistics is the collection, tabulation, and systematic classification of data, especially for use in predicting probable future trends. Crude ideas of probability and statistics likely evolved with the earliest humans, helping them decide where to go in search of food, shelter, and safety. Today's theories and methods of probability and statistics enable people to collect and analyze information relating to more complex situations than in the past, for example the prevalence or incidence of diseases among a group of people, and make decisions calculated to result in a certain outcome. this branch of mathematical investigation. Covering everything from ancient games of chance played around the world and the theories of Fermat and Pascal to the specious use of statistics, phrenology, and statistical methods to stop epidemics, this book offers a comprehensive look at the historical development and uses of probability and statistics. Modern applications of these ideas, the use of probability in modern safety analysis and phone networks, and the use of statistics in epidemiology and actuarial science, are also presented in this clearly written and illustrated reference.
Reviews 1
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10-Up-In uniform but independent volumes, Tabak offers sustained, meaty historical and methodological studies of the major branches of mathematics. Beginning, in some cases, with prehistoric evidence, he traces: developments in our very idea of what algebra is; the nature of ancient, projective (including non-Euclidian), and coordinate geometry; the uses of mathematics in finding precise ways to describe natural laws; the "invention" of rational, irrational and imaginary numbers, and the idea of infinity; and advances in probability theory and statistics. In each volume he analyzes the insights and accomplishments of many thinkers, ancient and modern, providing a generous array of illuminating demonstrations and examples while keeping extraneous biographical details-and, for that matter, illustrations-to a minimum, then closes with a time line, a specialized glossary, and annotated, multimedia reading lists. General readers may prefer to start with such single-volume histories as William Berlinghoff and Fernando Gouvea's Math through the Ages (Oxton House, 2002) or Ivor Grattan-Guinness's Rainbow of Mathematics (Norton, 2000), but for serious students of the subject, and collections supporting strong science programs, these make appropriate additions to both reference and circulating shelves.-John Peters, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
