The Perfect Bet: How Science and Math Are Taking the Luck Out of Gambling - Rilegato

Kucharski, Adam

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0465055958 ISBN 13: 9780465055951

Casa editrice: Basic Books, 2016

Riassunto

For the past 500 years, gamblers-led by mathematicians and scientists-have been trying to figure out how to pull the rug out from under Lady Luck. In The Perfect Bet, mathematician and award-winning writer Adam Kucharski tells the astonishing story of how the experts have succeeded, revolutionizing mathematics and science in the process. The house can seem unbeatable. Kucharski shows us just why it isn't. Even better, he demonstrates how the search for the perfect bet has been crucial for the scientific pursuit of a better world.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sugli autori

Adam Kucharski is an assistant professor in mathematical modeling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an award-winning science writer. He studied at the University of Warwick before completing a PhD in mathematics at the University of Cambridge. The winner of the 2012 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize, Kucharski lives in London.

Adam Kucharski is an associate professor and a Sir Henry Dale fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he works on analysis of infectious disease outbreaks. The author of The Perfect Bet, he lives in London.

Dalla quarta di copertina

There is one thing about gambling that everyone knows: the house always wins. Lotteries are set up to guarantee profits, to the state. A craps game is a sure thing, but only if you own the table. Sometimes, however, everyone is wrong. After all, the reason that casinos ban card counters is that counting cards works. Indeed, for the past 500 years, gamblersled by mathematicians and scientistshave been trying to figure out how to turn the tables on the house and pull the rug out from under Lady Luck.

In The Perfect Bet, mathematician and award-winning writer Adam Kucharski tells the astonishing story of how the experts have done it, revolutionizing mathematics and science in the process. From Galileo to Alan Turing, betting has been scientists playground for ideas: dice games in sixteenth-century bars gave birth to the theory of probability, and poker to game theory (mathematician John von Neumann wanted to improve his game) and to much of artificial intelligence. Kucharski gives us a collection of rogues, geniuses, and mavericks who are equally at home in a casino in Monte Carlo as investigating how to build an atomic bomb for the Manhattan Project. They include the mathematician who flipped a coin 25,000 times to see if it was fair; the college kids who gamed the Massachusetts lottery to yield millions of dollars in profit; and the horse-betting syndicates of Hong Kongs Happy Valley, who turned a wager on ponies into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

With mathematical rigor and narrative flair, Adam Kucharski reveals the tangled history of betting and science. The house can seem unbeatable. In this book, Kucharski shows us just why it isnt. Even better, he shows us how the search for the perfect bet has been crucial for the scientific pursuit of a better world.

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Basic Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2016
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0465055958
• ISBN 13: 9780465055951
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 271
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile