Understanding Probability

Henk Tijms is Emeritus Professor at Vrije University in Amsterdam. He is the author of several textbooks and numerous papers on applied probability and stochastic optimization. In 2008 Henk Tijms received the prestigious INFORMS Expository Writing Award for his publications and books.

• Preface; Introduction; Part I. Probability in Action: 1. Probability questions; 2. The law of large numbers and simulation; 3. Probabilities in everyday life; 4. Rare events and lotteries; 5. Probability and statistics; 6. Chance trees and Bayes' rule; Part II. Essentials of Probability: 7. Foundations of probability theory; 8. Conditional probability and Bayes; 9. Basic rules for discrete random variables; 10. Continuous random variables; 11. Jointly distributed random variables; 12. Multivariate normal distribution; 13. Conditioning by random variables; 14. Generating functions; 15. Discrete-time Markov chains; 16. Continuous-time Markov chains; Appendix; Counting methods and ex; Recommended reading; Answers to odd-numbered problems; Bibliography; Index.

'Henk Tijms - famous for his clear and profound work in applied probability - brings us another jewel. His book Understanding Probability combines outstanding pedagogy and thought provoking exercises to produce the best introductory text on the market.' Wayne Winston, Indiana University, Bloomington