Will You Be Alive 10 Years from Now? And Numerous Other Curious Questions in Probability

Nahin (Duelling Idiots and Other Probability Puzzlers), University of New Hampshire professor emeritus of electrical engineering, takes intrepid, mathematically minded readers on a fresh outing through the land of probability in this collection of puzzles, complete with MATLAB computer code. Nahin draws from the usual venues of probability problems, from gambling to sports, many utilizing Monte Carlo algorithms, which use random numbers to describe the behavior of dice and flipped coins. Nahin begins with the familiar “Gambler’s Ruin” problem, then branches out to consider the number of stops an elevator might make along its route, the likelihood of a proofreader missing errors, chance of false positives in medical tests, and whether the traditional dreidel game is really fair. The book isn’t written for the casual browser; Nahin assumes readers will have a solid grounding in college-level mathematics as well as basic probability and some computer programming, if not knowledge of the MATLAB software package. For those who have the prerequisites, the author offers a pleasant collection of brain-teasers on which to test their mettle. 28 line illus., 22 tables. (Dec.)