The Broken Dice, and Other Mathematical Tales of Chance


Book Description

Contemplating the randomness of nature, Ekeland extends his consideration of the catastrophe theory of the universe begun in Mathematics and the Unexpected, drawing upon rich literary sources and current topics in math and physics such as chaos theory, information theory, and particle physics. Line drawings.




Probability Distributions in Risk Management Operations


Book Description

This book is about the formulations, theoretical investigations, and practical applications of new stochastic models for fundamental concepts and operations of the discipline of risk management. It also examines how these models can be useful in the descriptions, measurements, evaluations, and treatments of risks threatening various modern organizations. Moreover, the book makes clear that such stochastic models constitute very strong analytical tools which substantially facilitate strategic thinking and strategic decision making in many significant areas of risk management. In particular the incorporation of fundamental probabilistic concepts such as the sum, minimum, and maximum of a random number of continuous, positive, independent, and identically distributed random variables in the mathematical structure of stochastic models significantly supports the suitability of these models in the developments, investigations, selections, and implementations of proactive and reactive risk management operations. The book makes extensive use of integral and differential equations of characteristic functions, mainly corresponding to important classes of mixtures of probability distributions, as powerful analytical tools for investigating the behavior of new stochastic models suitable for the descriptions and implementations of fundamental risk control and risk financing operations. These risk treatment operations very often arise in a wide variety of scientific disciplines of extreme practical importance.




The Age of Chance


Book Description

Historical context: locates gambling in attitudes from Aristotle to present day Las Vegas Growing area of interest: here and in the US. Links to Social History, Anthropology and Consumption Studies Strong market potential in US and Far East Good US reviews (Steve Seidman, Univ New York, Albany); Norman Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Topical: recent surge of gambling in Britain with National Lottery; deregulation of gambling industry




Figures of Chance II


Book Description

Figures of Chance II: Chance in Theory and Practice proposes a multidisciplinary analysis of cultural phenomena related to notions of chance and contingency. Alongside its transhistorical companion volume (Figures of Chance I), it considers how the projective and predictive capacity of societies is shaped by representations and cultural models of a reality that is understood, by varying degrees, to be contingent, unpredictable, or chaotic. This volume reevaluates the role played by figurative representations of chance in contemporary discourses about chance and contingency. Written by seven interdisciplinary teams, and encompassing philosophy, literature, history of science, sociology, mathematics, cognitive science, information science, and art history, this text puts scientific conceptions of chance into dialogue with their contemporary literary and artistic representations. It thus brings out the central role played by art in the human perception of chance, and in our methods for projecting the future, in order to better understand contemporary human attitudes in the face of risk.




Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas


Book Description

The 3rd Edition of Literacy & Learning in the Content Areas helps readers build the knowledge, motivation, tools, and confidence they need as they integrate literacy into their middle and high school content area classrooms. Its unique approach to teaching content area literacy actively engages preservice and practicing teachers in reading and writing and the very activities that they will use to teach literacy to their own studentsin middle and high school classrooms . Rather than passively learning about strategies for incorporating content area literacy activities, readers get hands-on experience in such techniques as mapping/webbing, anticipation guides, booktalks, class websites, and journal writing and reflection. Readers also learn how to integrate children's and young adult literature, primary sources, biographies, essays, poetry, and online content, communities, and websites into their classrooms. Each chapter offers concrete teaching examples and practical suggestions to help make literacy relevant to students' content area learning. Author Sharon Kane demonstrates how relevant reading, writing, speaking, listening, and visual learning activities can improve learning in content area subjects and at the same time help readers meet national content knowledge standards and benchmarks.




Guide to Information Sources in Mathematics and Statistics


Book Description

This book is a reference for librarians, mathematicians, and statisticians involved in college and research level mathematics and statistics in the 21st century. We are in a time of transition in scholarly communications in mathematics, practices which have changed little for a hundred years are giving way to new modes of accessing information. Where journals, books, indexes and catalogs were once the physical representation of a good mathematics library, shelves have given way to computers, and users are often accessing information from remote places. Part I is a historical survey of the past 15 years tracking this huge transition in scholarly communications in mathematics. Part II of the book is the bibliography of resources recommended to support the disciplines of mathematics and statistics. These are grouped by type of material. Publication dates range from the 1800's onwards. Hundreds of electronic resources-some online, both dynamic and static, some in fixed media, are listed among the paper resources. Amazingly a majority of listed electronic resources are free.




DOE Simplified


Book Description

Offering a planned approach for determining cause and effect, DOE Simplified: Practical Tools for Effective Experimentation, Third Edition integrates the authors decades of combined experience in providing training, consulting, and computational tools to industrial experimenters. Supplying readers with the statistical means to analyze how numerous variables interact, it is ideal for those seeking breakthroughs in product quality and process efficiency via systematic experimentation.Following in the footsteps of its bestselling predecessors, this edition incorporates a lively approach to learning the fundamentals of the design of experiments (DOE). It lightens up the inherently dry complexities with interesting sidebars and amusing anecdotes.The book explains simple methods for collecting and displaying data and presents comparative experiments for testing hypotheses. Discussing how to block the sources of variation from your analysis, it looks at two-level factorial designs and covers analysis of variance. It also details a four-step planning process for designing and executing experiments that takes statistical power into consideration.This edition includes a major revision of the software that accompanies the book (via download) and sets the stage for introducing experiment designs where the randomization of one or more hard-to-change factors can be restricted. Along these lines, it includes a new chapter on split plots and adds coverage of a number of recent developments in the design and analysis of experiments.Readers have access to case studies, problems, practice experiments, a glossary of terms, and a glossary of statistical symbols, as well as a series of dynamic online lectures that cover the first several chapters of the book.







Driver Behaviour and Training


Book Description

This second volume of Driver Behaviour and Training covers recent advances in the study of driving behaviour and driver training, how driver characteristics, goals and motivations contribute to unsafe driving behaviour, and the development of driver training courses that consider all the skills essential for road safety. Readership includes road safety researchers from a variety of different academic backgrounds, senior practitioners in the field of driver training from regulatory authorities and professional driver training organizations such as the police service, and private and public sector personnel who are concerned with improving road safety.




The Waltz of Reason


Book Description

"A mind-bending jaunt ... that makes clear in fascinating detail how math is more than a sum of its parts" (Publishers Weekly) “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here,” Plato warned would-be philosophers. Mathematician Karl Sigmund agrees. In The Waltz of Reason, he shows how mathematics and philosophy together have shaped our understanding of space, chance, logic, cooperation, voting, and the social contract. Sigmund shows how game theory is integral to moral philosophy, how statistics shaped the meaning of reason, and how the search for a logical basis for math leads to deep questions about the nature of truth itself. But this is no dry tome: Sigmund’s wit and humor shine as brightly as his erudition. The Waltz of Reason is an engrossing history of ideas as vibrant as a ballroom full of dancers, one that empowers as it entertains, following the complex and occasionally dizzying steps of the thinkers who have molded our thought and founded our world.