What Is Random?

What Is Random? Chance and Order in Mathematics and Life

1999

Hardback (13 Aug 1999)

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Publisher's Synopsis

In this fascinating book, mathematician Ed Beltrami takes a close enough look at randomness to make it mysteriously disappear. The results of coin tosses, it turns out, are determined from the start, and only our incomplete knowledge makes them look random. "Random" sequences of numbers are more elusive, but Godels undecidability theorem informs us that we will never know. Those familiar with quantum indeterminacy assert that order is an illusion, and that the world is fundamentally random. Yet randomness is also an illusion. Perhaps order and randomness, like waves and particles, are only two sides of the same (tossed) coin.

Book information

ISBN: 9780387987378
Publisher: Springer New York
Imprint: Copernicus
Pub date:
Edition: 1999
DEWEY: 519.2
DEWEY edition: 21
Language: English
Number of pages: 201
Weight: 354g
Height: 137mm
Width: 210mm
Spine width: 16mm