Publisher's Synopsis
This concise text is intended for a one-semester course, and offers a practical introduction to probability for undergraduates at all levels with different backgrounds and views towards applications. Only basic calculus is required. However, the book is written so that the calculus difficulties of students do not obscure the probability content in the first six chapters. Thus, the exposition initially focuses on fundamental probability concepts and an easy introduction to statistics. Theory is kept to a minimum here, the striking feature being numerous exercises and examples. Chapters 7 and 8 rely heavily on the calculus of one and several variables to study sums of random variables (via moment generating functions), transformations of random variables (using distribution functions) and transformations of random vectors. In Chapter 8 a number of facts are proved with respect to expectation, variance and covariance, and normal samples. In recent years there has been an increasing need for teaching some statistics in an introductory probability course. Many undergraduate programs in biology, computer science, engineering, physics and mathematics have traditionally required such a course. Undergraduates and some high school seniors will find this text a useful and pleasant experience.
