Discrete probability

Publication date 10 December 1997

conditional probability discrete probability expected value generating functions independence Markov chains Poisson and normal distributions random variable random walks Stirling's formula textbook the law of large numbers variance

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to probability theory (60-01)

Review text

This post-calculus level text is suitable for a one-semester first course in probability and is unique in its broad and comprehensive coverage of the subject at its intended level. The presentation is thorough and detailed with many examples. Over four hundred exercises are included, many of which contain multiple parts. This book provides a solid background and understanding of the basic results and methods of discrete probability and prepares the student for more advanced courses. In the Introduction it is stated that the book is of special interest to students majoring in computer science as well as those majoring in mathematics. A significant amount of material is covered, starting with a detailed treatment of counting (Chapter 2) and finishing with Markov chains (Chapter 9). The seven remaining chapters focus on central areas of discrete probability: independence and conditional probability (Chapter 3), random variables (Chapters 4 and 5), approximating probability (Chapter 6) (with a fairly detailed proof of Stirling's formula), generating functions (Chapter 7), and random walks (Chapter 8). Each chapter contains four or fewer sections which conclude with the exercises. Calculus is used only occasionally in the text. Throughout, historical sketches on various aspects of probability are given including biographical information on Bayes, the Bernoullis, Chebyshev, DeMoivre, Fermat, Huygens, Laplace, Markov, de Montmort, Pascal, Poisson, and Stirling. The book is written in a slow, gentile style with clear exposition and achieves the aims set out in the Introduction (Chapter 1). It explains succinctly and in an elementary style what, for example, the normal and Poisson distributions are and how a Markov chain in discrete time is defined.

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