Description

A collection of stimulating probability puzzles from bestselling math writer Paul Nahin

What are the chances of a game-show contestant finding a chicken in a box? Is the Hanukkah dreidel a fair game? Will you be alive ten years from now? These are some of the one-of-a-kind probability puzzles that popular math writer Paul Nahin offers in this lively and informative book. Nahin brings probability to life with colorful historical anecdotes and a unique puzzle-solving approach that illustrates many of the techniques mathematicians use to grapple with probability. He looks at classic puzzles--from Galileo's dice-tossing problem to a disarming dice puzzle that would have astonished even Newton--and presents a dozen challenge problems and twenty-five probability puzzlers. With wit and insight, Nahin demonstrates why seemingly simple probability problems can stump even the experts.