Reasoning About Luck

Vinay Ambegaokar

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780486818795
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Atomic & Molecular Physics

This book introduces college students and other readers to the uses of probability and statistics in the physical sciences, focusing on thermal and statistical physics and touching upon quantum physics. Widely praised as beautifully written andthoughtful, Reasoning About Luck explains concepts in a way that readers can understand and enjoy, even students who are not specializing in science and those outside the classroom — only some familiarity with basic algebra is necessary. Attentive readers will come away with a solid grasp of many of the basic concepts of physics and some excellent insights into the way physicists think and work.
"If students who are not majoring in science understood no more physics than that presented by Ambegaokar, they would have a solid basis for thinking about physics and the other sciences." — Physics Today.
"There is a real need for rethinking how we teach thermal physics—at all levels, but especially to undergraduates. Professor Ambegaokar has done just that, and given us an outstanding and ambitious textbook for nonscience majors. I find Professor Ambegaokar's style throughout the book to be graceful and witty, with a nice balance of both encouragement and admonishment." — American Journal of Physics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The likely, the unlikely, and the incomprehensible
• 3. Normality and large numbers
• 4. Examples
• 5. A little mathematics
• 6. Forces, motion, and energy
• 7. Atoms, molecules, and molecular motion
• 8. Disorder, entropy, energy, and temperature
• 9. Heat, work, and putting heat to work
• 10. Fluctuations and the arrow of time
• 11. Chaos
• 12. Quantum jumps: the ultimate gamble
• Index
• Addenda for the Dover Edition