Haigh J. Probability: A Very Short Introduction

Oxford University Press, 2012. — 128 p. — (Very short introductions, 310). — ISBN: 978-0-19-958848-0.Making good decisions under conditions of uncertainty requires a sound appreciation of the way random chance works. It requires, in short, an understanding of probability. In this Very Short Introduction, John Haigh introduces the ideas of probability - and the different philosophical approaches to probability - and gives a brief account of the history of development of probability theory, from Galileo and Pascal to Bayes, Laplace, Poisson, and Markov. He describes the basic probability distributions and discusses a wide range of applications in science, economics, and a variety of other contexts such as games and betting. He concludes with an intriguing discussion of coincidences and some curious paradoxes.