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Title: Duelling Idiots and Other Probability Puzzlers by Paul J. Nahin ISBN: 0-691-00979-1 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 15 October, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $37.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Exactly who did the author have in mind?
Comment: The best puzzle books start with problems that are interesting and non trivial, and offer unexpected solutions. They appeal to a crowd with different levels of education and offer a new idea or two to all. They will lead an unsuspecting layman to a new beautiful mathematical subject, and treat a pro with a lighthearted yet technically sound look at the concepts he is already familiar with.
"Dueling idiots" is none of that. To read it you must be more than familiar with probability theory, and at ease with going through rather tedious calculations and using mathlab. Yet all a sophisticated reader finds here is absence of fresh ideas and technical sloppiness.
I am giving it two stars rather than one because it could provide some probability theory buff with a nice set of "real life" applications -- good as an auxiliary text book for an undergraduate probability class e.g. Apart from that, you will find a better puzzle book almost anywhere you look.
Rating: 2
Summary: This Attempt Falls Short
Comment: There is surely a need for a book like this but sadly this one doesn't do the
job. The author clearly has no idea what's really required. On p 20 he has
the results of five runs of 10,000 simulations to estimate the probability
P(A) of an event A. Now P(A) is known here, so these simulations are just an
ATTEMPT to verify that the program is working correctly. The author merely
notes that "the estimates for P(A) are a bit on the high side." No kidding!
All five runs produced consistently high estimates, and combining the runs
there's only one chance in 87 that the overall estimate would be so high
(ASSUMING the program were working properly). Of course, it's POSSIBLE that
the procedure is correct, that such high estimates just happened by a long
shot, but my email suggesting that the simulations be rerun drew no reponse.
Given this failure to demonstrate that a KNOWN probability can be estimated
properly, goodness only knows how good/bad UNknown probability estimates are.
Little wonder so many bombs are missing their targets in Afghanistan.
Turning to how the random numbers were generated I promptly noticed the table
of autocorrelations on p 184. These are not only bad, the zero-lag
correlation (a variable with itself) is 1.023!!! Given that it should be
nothing but EXACTLY 1 I initially thought this was a social comment on the
age of the generator, but machines were NEVER THAT bad. Rather, you'll find
the reason in the mishmash just above the table.
Indeed, in what little I read, statistical concepts are massacred. Further,
on p 27 there's an expression for pi which is actually mathematical nonsense
(ie, it is incorrect). At that stage I quit reading, it's so painful.
Nonetheless, I'll give the author two stars for TRYING to fill a void. He
just needs someone to correct everything, which is obviously no small task.
Rating: 5
Summary: Oddballs and urns
Comment: Books on probability are often boring. (Remember all those tedious problems involving people obsessed with drawing balls from urns?). In "Duelling Idiots", Nahin actually makes the subject fun by describing offbeat problems with unexpected solutions. If you like solving math puzzles, then this is a great book to look at. If you're teaching a course and want to assign a book that students might actually read, then look no further.
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Title: Slicing Pizzas, Racing Turtles, and Further Adventures in Applied Mathematics by Robert B. Banks ISBN: 0691102848 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: When Least Is Best : How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible by Paul J. Nahin ISBN: 0691070784 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 24 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability with Solutions by Frederick Mosteller ISBN: 0486653552 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 May, 1987 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Towing Icebergs, Falling Dominoes, and Other Adventures in Applied Mathematics by Robert B. Banks ISBN: 0691102856 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Trigonometric Delights by Eli Maor ISBN: 0691095418 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 25 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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