Mathematics of uncertainty. Ideas, methods, application problems. Transl. from the German (Q2487153)

This monograph is an English translation of the German original from 1997 [Ratschläge zum mathematischen Umgang mit Ungewißheit. Reasonable computing. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner (1997; Zbl 0883.68003)], completed with some recent references. The book is intended assist practitioners to successfully use mathematical resources when dealing with uncertainty. After 7 chapters (1. Introduction; 2. Mathematical representation of simple data and connections; 3. Specification and use of observation fuzziness; 4. Specification and use of uncertain variability; 5. Specification of vagueness of statements on sets; 6. Methods from qualitative data analysis; 7. Evaluation of functional relationships), it brings an outlook with conclusions. A lot of space in this book is devoted to the question of how impreciseness, variability and vagueness in the data influence the result (this problem does not play any role in software packages, if they are not concerned explicitly with handling of such data). Though the state-of-art in the last decade changed essentially, the ideas presented in this book remain valid and helpful especially for practitioners in helping them to decide for an appropriate software tool when dealing with data suffering from uncertainty.