What are your chances of dying on your next flight, being called for
jury duty, or winning the lottery? We all encounter probability problems
in our everyday lives. In this collection of twenty-one puzzles, Paul
Nahin challenges us to think creatively about the laws of probability as
they apply in playful, sometimes deceptive, ways to a fascinating array
of speculative situations. Games of Russian roulette, problems involving
the accumulation of insects on flypaper, and strategies for determining
the odds of the underdog winning the World Series all reveal intriguing
dimensions to the workings of probability. Over the years, Nahin, a
veteran writer and teacher of the subject, has collected these and other
favorite puzzles designed to instruct and entertain math enthusiasts of
all backgrounds.
If idiots A and B alternately take aim at each other with a six-shot
revolver containing one bullet, what is the probability idiot A will
win? What are the chances it will snow on your birthday in any given
year? How can researchers use coin flipping and the laws of probability
to obtain honest answers to embarrassing survey questions? The solutions
are presented here in detail, and many contain a profound element of
surprise. And some puzzles are beautiful illustrations of basic
mathematical concepts: "The Blind Spider and the Fly," for example, is a
clever variation of a "random walk" problem, and "Duelling Idiots" and
"The Underdog and the World Series" are straightforward introductions to
binomial distributions.
Written in an informal way and containing a plethora of interesting
historical material, Duelling Idiots is ideal for those who are
fascinated by mathematics and the role it plays in everyday life and in
our imaginations.
