Print version record.

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Preface to the Second Edition; Preface to the First Edition; Chapter 1: Computing Probabilities: Right Ways and Wrong Ways; The Probabilist; The Probabilist'S Toys and Language; The Probabilist'S Rule Book; Independence, Airplanes, and Russian Peasants; Conditional Probability, Swedish TV, and British Courts; Liar, Liar; Car Dealers and Color Blindness; Shuttlecocks and Spaghetti Westerns; Combinatorics, Pastrami, and Poetry; The Von Trapps and The Binomial Distribution; Final Word; Chapter 2: Surprising Probabilities: When Intuition Struggles.

Boys, Girls, Aces, and Colored CardsGoats and Gloats; Happy Birthday; Typical Atypicalities; The British Snob and I; Strategery; Final Word; Chapter 3: Tiny Probabilities: Why Are They So Hard to Escape?; Probable Improbabilities; Saddam and I; Taking Tiny Risks; A Million-to-One Shot, Doc, Million to One!; Monsieur Poisson and the Mysterious Number 37; Clumps in Space; Final Word; Chapter 4: Backward Probabilities: The Reverend Bayes to Our Rescue; Driving Miss Daisy; Bayes, Balls, and Boys (and Girls); Bayes and My Green Card; Objection Your Honor; Ornithology; Final Word.

Chapter 5: Beyond Probabilities: What to ExpectGreat Expectations; The Price is Right (Maybe); Blood, Sweat, and Theory; Good Things Come to Those Who Wait; Expect the Unexpected; Exponential Growth toward Extinction; Size Matters (and Length, and Age); Mean, Median, Mode; Deviant Behavior; Final Word; Chapter 6: Inevitable Probabilities: Two Fascinating Mathematical Results; Alea Iacta Est, Over and Over; Even-Steven? The Law Misunderstood; Coin Tosses and Freeway Congestion; Let's Get Serious; Bells and Bread; How a Toronto Quincunx Changed My Life; Final Word.

Chapter 7: Gambling Probabilities: Why Donald Trump Is Richer than YouFrench Letters; Roulette: A Classy Way to Waste Your Money; Craps: Not so Dicey after All; Blackjack: Money for Mnemonics; Math for Losers; Win Money and Lose Friends; Final Word; Chapter 8: Guessing Probabilities: Enter the Statisticians; Lies, Damned Lies, and Beautiful Lies?; 4 Out of 10 Like the President 19 Times Out of 20; Polls Gone Wild; The Silver Lining; The Lawsuit and the Lurker; Football Players and Geyser Eruptions; Snooping in the Abbot's Garden; Final Word.

Chapter 9: Faking Probabilities: Computer SimulationMahogany Dice and Modular Arithmetic; Random and Not-So-Random Digits; Number One is Number One; Is Random Really Random?; Final Word; Index; End User License Agreement.

Praise for the First Edition"If there is anything you want to know, or remind yourself, about probabilities, then look no further than this comprehensive, yet wittily written and enjoyable, compendium of how to apply probability calculations in real-world situations."--Keith Devlin, Stanford University, National Public Radio's "Math Guy" and author of The Math Gene and The Unfinished GameFrom probable improbabilities to regular irregularities, Probabilities: The Little Numbers That Rule Our Lives, Second Edition investigates the often surprising effects of risk and chance in our lives. Featur.