Textbook Revolution: Introduction to Probability

Introduction to Probability

Charles M. Grinstead and J. Laurie Snell

http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Echance/teaching_aids/books_articles/probability_book/book.html

A PDF of an in-print probability textbook by authors from Dartmouth and Swarthmore. The website also has links to many other useful probability resources online, including a complete course on the subject. The book has everything you’d expect a print textbook to have, including a professional layout, plenty of illustrations, and practice problems at the end of each chapter. Why use anything else?

From the text:

This text is designed for an introductory probability course taken by sophomores, juniors, and seniors in mathematics, the physical and social sciences, engineering, and computer science. It presents a thorough treatment of probability ideas and techniques necessary for a firm understanding of the subject. The text can be used in a variety of course lengths, levels, and areas of emphasis.

For use in a standard one-term course, in which both discrete and continuous probability is covered, students should have taken as a prerequisite two terms of calculus, including an introduction to multiple integrals. In order to cover Chapter 11, which contains material on Markov chains, some knowledge of matrix theory
is necessary.

The text can also be used in a discrete probability course. The material has been organized in such a way that the discrete and continuous probability discussions are presented in a separate, but parallel, manner. This organization dispels an overly rigorous or formal view of probability and offers some strong pedagogical value in that the discrete discussions can sometimes serve to motivate the more abstract continuous probability discussions. For use in a discrete probability course, students should have taken one term of calculus as a prerequisite.

Very little computing background is assumed or necessary in order to obtain full benefits from the use of the computing material and examples in the text. All of the programs that are used in the text have been written in each of the languages TrueBASIC, Maple, and Mathematica.

Link to website

Available for purchase? Yes