A First Course in Probability 8th Edition by Sheldon Ross
ISBN-13: 9780136033134
ISBN-10: 013603313X
We see that the theory of probability is at bottom only common sense reduced
to calculation; it makes us appreciate with exactitude what reasonable minds feel
by a sort of instinct, often without being able to account for it. . . . It is remarkable
that this science, which originated in the consideration of games of chance, should
have become the most important object of human knowledge. . . . The most important
questions of life are, for the most part, really only problems of probability.? So said
the famous French mathematician and astronomer (the ?Newton of France?) Pierre-
Simon, Marquis de Laplace. Although many people feel that the famous marquis,
who was also one of the great contributors to the development of probability, might
have exaggerated somewhat, it is nevertheless true that probability theory has become
a tool of fundamental importance to nearly all scientists, engineers, medical practitioners,
jurists, and industrialists. In fact, the enlightened individual had learned to
ask not ?Is it so?? but rather ?What is the probability that it is so??
