Understanding Probability: Chance Rules in Everyday Life

In this fully revised second edition of Understanding Probability, the reader can learn about the world of probability in an informal way. The author demystifies the law of large numbers, betting systems, random walks, the bootstrap, rare events, the central limit theorem, the Bayesian approach and more. This second edition has wider coverage, more explanations and examples and exercises, and a new chapter introducing Markov chains, making it a great choice for a first probability course. But its easy-going style makes it just as valuable if you want to learn about the subject on your own, and high school algebra is really all the mathematical background you need.

Henk Tijms is Professor of Operations Research at the Vrije University in Amsterdam. The author of several textbooks, including A First Course in Stochastic Models, he is intensively active in the popularization of applied mathematics and probability in Dutch high schools. He has also written numerous papers on applied probability and stochastic optimization for international journals, including Applied Probability and Probability in the Engineering and International Sciences.