This is a unique book on how probability affects our everyday lives. It guides the reader in an almost chronological trip through the fascinating and amazing laws of chance, omnipresent in the natural world and in our daily lives. Along the way many fascinating topics are discussed. These include challenging probability paradoxes, "paranormal" coincidences, game odds, and causes and effects. Also discussed are the interpretation of opinion polls, winning chances as a game proceeds, the nature of randomness, entropy and randomness, randomness in life, algorithmic complexity and the undecidability of randomness. Finally the author discusses possibilities and limitations of learning the laws of a Universe immersed in chance events. This charming book, with its many easy-to-follow mathematical examples, will inform and entertain the scientist and non-scientist alike.

Autorentext
J.P. Marques de Sá is Full Professor at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Porto. He is chairman of the Signal Processing Group of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Porto. His research interests are in the areas of Physiological Signal Analysis, Pattern Recognition and Neural Networks. He is a reviewer for several scientific journals and chairman of the "Summer School on Neural Networks" annually held at Porto. He is author of six books, four in Portuguese and two in English.

Klappentext

With its many easy-to-follow mathematical examples, this book takes the reader on an almost chronological trip through the fascinating and amazing laws of chance, omnipresent in the natural world and in our daily lives. Along the route many fascinating topics are discussed, such as: challenging probability paradoxes; "paranormal" coincidences; game odds; causes and effects; interpretation of opinion polls; winning chances as a game proceeds; the nature of randomness; entropy and randomness; randomness in life; algorithmic complexity and the undecidability of randomness; possibilities and limitations of learning the laws of a Universe immersed in chance events. This charming book will inform and entertain the scientist and non-scientist alike.

Zusammenfassung
Our lives are immersed in a sea of chance. Everyone's existence is a meeting point of a multitude of accidents. The origin of the word 'chance' is usually traced back to the vulgar Latin word 'cadentia', meaning a befalling by fortuitous circumstances, with no knowable or determinable causes. The Roman philosopher Cicero clearly expressed the idea of 'chance' in his work De Divinatione: For we do not apply the words 'chance', 'luck', 'accident' or 'casualty' except toanevent which hassooccurredorhappened that it either might not have occurred at all, or might have occurred in any other way. 2.VI.15. For if a thing that is going to happen, may happen in one way or another, indi?erently, chance is predominant; but things that happen by chance cannot be certain. 2.IX.24. Ina certain sensechance isthespiceoflife. Iftherewerenophenomena with unforeseeable outcomes, phenomena with an element of chance, all temporal causee?ect sequences would be completely deterministic.

Inhalt
Probabilities and Games of Chance.- Amazing Conditions.- Expecting to Win.- The Wonderful Curve.- Probable Inferences.- Fortune and Ruin.- The Nature of Chance.- Noisy Irregularities.- Chance and Order.- Living with Chance.