Taylor & Francis Nachlas, J: Probability Foundations for Engineers

"Preface This book is intended for undergraduate (probably sophomore-level) engineering students--principally industrial engineering students but also those in electrical and mechanical engineering who enroll in a first course in probability. It is specifically intended to present probability theory to them in an accessible manner. The book was first motivated by the persistent failure of students entering my random processes course to bring an understanding of basic probability with them from the prerequisite course. This motivation was reinforced by more recent success with the prerequisite course when it was organized in the manner used to construct this text. Essentially, everyone understands and deals with probability every day in their normal lives. There are innumerable examples of this. Nevertheless, for some reason, when engineering students who have good math skills are presented with the mathematics of probability theory, a disconnect occurs somewhere. It may not be fair to assert that the students arrived to the second course unprepared because of the previous emphasis on theorem-proof-type mathematical presentation, but the evidence seems support this view. In any case, in assembling this text, I have carefully avoided a theorem-proof type of presentation. All of the theory is included, but I have tried to present it in a conversational rather than a formal manner. I have relied heavily on the assumption that undergraduate engineering students have solid mastery of calculus. The math is not emphasized so much as it is used. Another point of stressed in the preparation of the text is that there are no balls-in-urns examples or problems. Gambling problems related to cards and dice are used, but balls in urns have been avoided"--