Probability for Dummies by Deborah Rumsey

Probability for Dummies: Packed with practical tips and techniques for solving probability problems
Increase your chances of acing that probability exam — or winning at the casino!

Whether you’re hitting the books for a probability or statistics course or hitting the tables at a casino, working out probabilities can be problematic. This book helps you even the odds. Using easy-to-understand explanations and examples, it demystifies probability — and even offers savvy tips to boost your chances of gambling success!

Discover how to
* Conquer combinations and permutations
* Understand probability models from binomial to exponential
* Make good decisions using probability
* Play the odds in poker, roulette, and other games

Probability is the measure of the likelihood that an event will occur. Probability is quantified as a number between 0 and 1, where, loosely speaking, 0 indicates impossibility and 1 indicates certainty. The higher the probability of an event, the more likely it is that the event will occur. A simple example is the tossing of a fair (unbiased) coin. Since the coin is fair, the two outcomes (“heads” and “tails”) are both equally probable; the probability of “heads” equals the probability of “tails”; and since no other outcomes are possible, the probability of either “heads” or “tails” is 1/2 (which could also be written as 0.5 or 50%).

These concepts have been given an axiomatic mathematical formalization in probability theory, which is used widely in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science (in particular physics), artificial intelligence/machine learning, computer science, game theory, and philosophy to, for example, draw inferences about the expected frequency of events. Probability theory is also used to describe the underlying mechanics and regularities of complex systems.