The Norm Chronicles: Stories and Numbers about Risk

Muchael Blastland & David Spiegehalter

ISBN 10: 1846686210 / ISBN 13: 9781846686214

Published by Profile Books, London, 2014

About this Item

Meet Norm. He's 31, 5'9, just over 13 stone, and works a 39 hour week. He likes a drink, doesn't do enough exercise and occasionally treats himself to a bar of chocolate (milk). He's a pretty average kind of guy. In fact, he is the average guy in this clever and unusual take on statistical risk, chance, and how these two factors affect our everyday choices. Watch as Norm (who, like all average specimens, feels himself to be uniquely special), and his friends careful Prudence and reckless Kelvin, turns to statistics to help him in life's endless series of choices - should I fly or take the train? Have a baby? Another drink? Or another sausage? Do a charity skydive or get a lift on a motorbike? Because chance and risk aren't just about numbers - it's about what we believe, who we trust and how we feel about the world around us. From a world expert in risk and the bestselling author of The Tiger That Isn't, this is a commonsense (and wildly entertaining) guide to personal risk and decoding the statistics that represent it. 328 pages. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Science::Popular Science; Science & Technology; ISBN/EAN: 9781846686214. Inventory No: 273273.

Seller Inventory # 273273

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Norm Chronicles: Stories and Numbers about Risk
• Publisher: Profile Books, London
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846686210
• ISBN 13: 9781846686214
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science::Popular Science

About this title

Synopsis

cover The Norm Chronicles: Stories and numbers about danger By Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter Risk is not an easy subject to understand. The theory is too abstract, and often too unpalatable, for people to be comfortable with. We are more frightened by rare risks over which we have no control than routine risks we face every day; a horrific but one-off event can seem more threatening than a less rare occurrence. Despite its rarity, child abduction by strangers is much more frightening to parents than the risks of road traffic accidents. People wish to be given straightforward answers, rather than be presented with hypothetical statistics and the workings of chance. Rather than discussing the theory, The Norm Chronicles provides a guide to "risk, chance, luck and coincidence" through the life of the eponymous Norm, chosen to be the average guy, from the cradle to the grave, examining the impact that his various choices have upon him. Along the way we also meet his f

About the Author

Michael Blastland is an author, journalist, and BBC Radio 4 broadcaster. He is the author of, with Andrew Dilnot, the popular math books The Tiger that Isn't and The Numbers Game, as well as the memoir The Only Boy in the World.

David Spiegelhalter, OBE, is Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and the Royal Society.