LEADER 04300nam 2200685Ia 450 001 9910778569703321 005 20230421045730.0 010 $a0-674-02077-4 024 7 $a10.4159/9780674020771 035 $a(CKB)1000000000805690 035 $a(OCoLC)649958501 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10331355 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000232558 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12022462 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000232558 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10214844 035 $a(PQKB)10599636 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000486898 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11309189 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000486898 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10431381 035 $a(PQKB)11231230 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3300767 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3300767 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10331355 035 $a(OCoLC)923116751 035 $a(DE-B1597)584775 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674020771 035 $a(OCoLC)1322124423 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000805690 100 $a19970916d1998 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aRandomness$b[electronic resource] /$fDeborah J. Bennett 210 $aCambridge, MA $cHarvard University Press$d1998 215 $a1 online resource (249 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-674-10745-4 311 $a0-674-10746-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [209]-231) and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tContents -- $t1 Chance Encounters -- $t2 Why Resort to Chance? -- $t3 When the Gods Played Dice -- $t4 Figuring the Odds -- $t5 Mind Games for Gamblers -- $t6 Chance or Necessity? -- $t7 Order in Apparent Chaos -- $t8 Wanted: Random Numbers -- $t9 Randomness as Uncertainty -- $t10 Paradoxes in Probability -- $tNotes -- $tBibliography -- $tIndex 330 $aFrom the ancients? first readings of the innards of birds to your neighbor?s last bout with the state lottery, humankind has put itself into the hands of chance. Today life itself may be at stake when probability comes into play?in the chance of a false negative in a medical test, in the reliability of DNA findings as legal evidence, or in the likelihood of passing on a deadly congenital disease?yet as few people as ever understand the odds. 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 day. 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 also charts the parallel path by which societies have developed ideas about chance. Why, from ancient to modern times, have people resorted to chance in making decisions? Is a decision made by random choice ?fair?? What role has gambling played in our understanding of chance? Why do some individuals and societies refuse to accept randomness at all? If understanding randomness is so important to probabilistic thinking, why do the experts disagree about what it really is? And why are our intuitions about chance almost always dead wrong? Anyone who has puzzled over a probability conundrum is struck by the paradoxes and counterintuitive results that occur at a relatively simple level. Why this should be, and how it has been the case through the ages, for bumblers and brilliant mathematicians alike, is the entertaining and enlightening lesson of Randomness. 606 $aProbabilities$vPopular works 606 $aProbabilities$xHistory 606 $aChance$vPopular works 615 0$aProbabilities 615 0$aProbabilities$xHistory. 615 0$aChance 676 $a519.2 700 $aBennett$b Deborah J.$f1950-$0253664 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910778569703321 996 $aRandomness$9625399 997 $aUNINA