A Certain Uncertainty Nature's Random Ways

Based around a series of real-life scenarios, this engaging introduction to statistical reasoning will teach you how to apply powerful statistical, qualitative and probabilistic tools in a technical context. From analysis of electricity bills, baseball statistics, and stock market fluctuations, through to profound questions about physics of fermions and bosons, decaying nuclei, and climate change, each chapter introduces relevant physical, statistical and mathematical principles step-by-step in an engaging narrative style, helping to develop practical proficiency in the use of probability and statistical reasoning. With numerous illustrations making it easy to focus on the most important information, this insightful book is perfect for students and researchers of any discipline interested in the interwoven tapestry of probability, statistics, and physics.

1. Tools of the trade; 2. The 'fundamental problem' of a practical physicist; 3. Mother of all randomness I: the random disintegration of matter; 4. Mother of all randomness II: the random creation of light; 5. A certain uncertainty; 6. Doing the numbers: nuclear physics and the stock market; 7. On target: uncertainties of projectile flight; 8. The guesses of groups; 9. The random flow of energy I: power to the people; 10. The random flow of energy II: warning from the weather underground; Index.

Mark P. Silverman is the G. A. Jarvis Professor of Physics at Trinity College, Connecticut. He received his PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard University, and has since pursued a wide range of experimental and theoretical studies concerning the structure of matter, the behavior of light, and the dynamics of stars and galaxies.