40 Puzzles and Problems in Probability and Mathematical Statistics [Paperback]

This book is based on the view that cognitive skills are best acquired by solving challenging, non-standard probability problems.

Many puzzles and problems presented here are either new within a problem solving context (although as topics in fundamental research they are long known) or are variations of classical problems which follow directly from elementary concepts. A small number of particularly instructive problems is taken from previous sources which in this case are generally given. This book will be a handy resource for professors looking for problems to assign, for undergraduate math students, and for a more general audience of amateur scientists.

Many puzzles and problems presented here are either new within a problem solving context or are variations of classical problems which follow directly from elementary concepts. A small number of particularly instructive problems is taken from previous sources.

As a student I discovered in our library a thin booklet by Frederick Mosteller entitled50 Challenging Problems in Probability. Itreferredtoas- plementary regular textbook by William Feller, An Introduction to Pro- bilityTheoryanditsApplications.SoItookthisonealong,too,andstartedon the ?rst of Mostellers problems on the train riding home. From that evening, I caught on to probability. These two books were not primarily about abstract formalisms but rather about basic modeling ideas and about ways  often extremely elegant ones  to apply those notions to a surprising variety of empirical phenomena. Essentially, these books taught the reader the skill to think probabilistically and to apply simple probability models to real-world problems. The present book is in this tradition; it is based on the view that those cognitive skills are best acquired by solving challenging, nonstandard pro- bility problems. My own experience, both in learning and in teaching, is that challenging problems often help to develC9