Book Description

The best way to master probability is to work problems—lots of them. Through repeated practice, formerly fuzzy concepts begin to make sense, and solution strategies become clear. The Probability Workbook is a companion to The Probability Handbook, which covers counting techniques, probability rules, discrete probability distributions, and continuous probability distributions. This workbook offers more than 400 problems covering a wide range of probability techniques and distributions. From poker problems, to famous problems by luminaries in the field such as Pascal, Fermat, Bertrand, Fisher, and Deming, this one-of-a-kind book gives detailed numerical solutions and explanations presented in a conversational way. There are general probability questions involving travel itineraries, baseball, and birth orders, as well as more real-world applications such as quality inspection, reliability, statistical process control, and simulation. Problems applicable to the manufacturing, healthcare, business, and hospitality and tourism industries are included. For example, how many ways can the letters Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y be arranged? In poker, how many ways can a player be dealt a royal flush? If 4.5% of a hospital’s admissions are due to community-acquired and records show that the probability that a pneumonia patient is readmitted within 30 days of discharge is 14.6%. The readmission rate for all other diagnoses is 12.1%, what is the probability that a patient is readmitted given that he had pneumonia? For easy reference, each numbered problem in the workbook is categorized by broad topic area, and then by a more detailed, descriptive title. In addition to the topic and title, the level of difficulty is displayed for each problem using a die icon. This workbook is an invaluable resource for the probability portions of ASQ’s CQE, CSSGB, CSSBB, CSSMBB, and CRE exams. For those interested in taking a certification exam, the 50 multiple-choice questions found on the CD-ROM will be a good study resource. The questions draw from topics throughout the text, presented in random order.