Chance defines our life. Now Amir Aczel gives readers the tool to minimize, or maximize, chance's effect on their lives. Chance marks Aczel's return to his preferred field: the popularization of mathematics. Here he explores probability theory and its daily practical applications, while along the way relating stories of inveterate gamblers who also happen to be mathematical geniuses. With the clarity of the statistician he once was, Aczel analyses what is commonly known as luck.

Chance defines our life. Will you get the job, the lover, and the money? Now Amir Aczel, gives readers the tools to minimize, or maximize, chance's effect on their lives. Chance marks Aczel's return to his preferred field: the popularization of mathematics. Here he explores probability theory and its daily, practical applications, while along the way relating stories of inveterate gamblers who also happen to be mathematical geniuses. With the clarity of the statistician he once was, Aczel analyzes what is commonly known as luck. Alongside chapters on "The Surprising Birthday Problem," "Coincidences," and "How to Make Great Decisions" are a history of probability theory and anecdotes of its daily applications.

2005-08-16 Entertaining, but shallow

Probabilitytheory: for anyone who only has basic or no skills in mathematics and / or statistics, it may introduce a shiver down your spine. But, probably you've picked up somewhere probabilitytheory could come in quite handy to get a better objective view on your chances, so you are looking for some literature.

The enormous scope of this title (Chance: A Guide To Gambling, Love, The Stock Market and Just About Everything Else) is misleading customers into thinking this book would be an all-in-one solution for just about any probabilityproblem.

Gamblers who are looking for advice into figuring out probabilityformula's to increase their chances of winning in a certain (gambling)game will be enormously disappointed, because basically the advice for all casino games mentioned in this book comes down to this: don't gamble because the odds are against you.

Stockmarket amateurs will hardly find this title interesting, because statistical concepts like Standard Deviation, regression and correlation and so, which are more than necessary for analysing the stockmarket are abscent from the equation.

Only very basic concepts in probabilitytheory are introduced, and if you already have a background in probabilitytheory, this book will at best be a very shallow review.

For the layman the author's narrative style is very appealing, and most explications are very clear, but sometimes formula's are introduced to quickly and if you don't recognise all the math symbols, a layman can only wonder how the solution was calculated.

If you are looking for a far better educational book into probabilitytheory and stats in general, I highly recommend 'The idiot's guide to statistics' instead.

If you are searching for a book that is easy consumable and mostly entertaining, this is the right choice, but this is one for the shelf after the read and you probably won't find it much use after that.

A more realistic title like 'a very short introduction into probablitytheory' would have helped the rating.