Will You Be Alive 10 Years from Now?: And Numerous Other Curious Questions in Probability

A collection of stimulating probability puzzles from best-selling math writer Paul Nahin

What are the chances of a game-show contestant finding a chicken in a box? Is the Hanukkah dreidel a fair game? Will you be alive ten years from now? These are some of the one-of-a-kind probability puzzles that popular math writer Paul Nahin offers in this lively and informative book. Nahin brings probability to life with colorful historical anecdotes and a unique puzzle-solving approach that illustrates many of the techniques mathematicians use to grapple with probability. He looks at classic puzzles--from Galileo's dice-tossing problem to a disarming dice puzzle that would have astonished even Newton--and presents a dozen challenge problems and twenty-five probability puzzlers. With wit and insight, Nahin demonstrates why seemingly simple probability problems can stump even the experts.

Paul J. Nahin is the author of many popular math books, including How to Fall Slower Than Gravity, In Praise of Simple Physics, and An Imaginary Tale (all Princeton). He is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire.