First Course in Probability, A (7th Edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: Sheldon Ross
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Category: Book
List Price: $127.80
Buy New: $75.00
You Save: $52.80 (41%)
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Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 1182
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 7
Pages: 576
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0131856626
Dewey Decimal Number: 519.2
EAN: 9780131856622
Publication Date: May 28, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This introduction presents the mathematical theory of probability for readers in the fields of engineering and the sciences who possess knowledge of elementary calculus. Presents new examples and exercises throughout. Offers a new section that presents an elegant way of computing the moments of random variables defined as the number of events that occur. Gives applications to binomial, hypergeometric, and negative hypergeometric random variables, as well as random variables resulting from coupon collecting and match models. Provides additional results on inclusion-exclusion identity, Poisson paradigm, multinomial distribution, and bivariate normal distribution A useful reference for engineering and science professionals.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 51 more reviews...
 Sheldon Ross saves me every time October 6, 2005
Isha Zionit (United States)
29 out of 32 found this review helpful
Contrary to its title, this book has helped me through several probability courses. I used this book not only to study for the first actuary exam, but also as a supplement for my intermediate and doctoral-level probability/inference courses. Ross fills in gaps left by texts such as Rice, Cassella and Berger, etc., by spelling out properties of various distributions, and showing how they relate to eachother, and by doing many many examples.
Incidentally, save yourself the money and get an earlier edition. I have the fifth edition, which was not even the current edition at the time that I bought it, and it's perfect as is.
A Classic of Probability Theory October 25, 2004
Leonard J. Wilson (VA United States)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
A First Course in Probability by Sheldon Ross covers all the main topics of probability theory: Combinatorics, Probability Axioms, Conditional Probability and Independence, Discrete Random Variables, Continuous Random Variables, Joint Distributions, Expectation, and Limit Theorems. He develops each topic thoroughly using the definition-theorem-proof approach of classical mathematics, interspersed with numerous examples, many of which are classics in probability.
This book does require a solid foundation in calculus. Consequently, it is an appropriate text for a course at an advanced undergraduate level or even a first year graduate course (which is where I first encountered it). It does not require any knowledge of truly advanced mathematics (i.e., measure theory) which one would expect to find in an upper level graduate text, such as Patrick Billingsley's Probability and Measure.
Advice to students (and teachers): A student who does not have a solid foundation in calculus, as evidenced by the ability to apply integration by parts, and perhaps a year of post-calculus math which introduced the concept of the mathematical proof, will have a difficult time with this book.
This book provided me with all the probability theory I needed to complete a master's degree in statistics. Since statistics is nothing more than a collection of applied problems that can be solved, modeled, or at least understood by using the tools of probability theory, I was able to coast through the rest of my master's program and didn't have to start really working again until I subsequently encountered Billingsley's book (cited above).
Thank you, Professor Ross.
Best introductory statistics book I've yet found October 12, 1999
Kenneth S. Dieudonne (Melbourne, FL USA)
17 out of 24 found this review helpful
I'm an electrical engineer, not a statistician. It's tough because the teachers of these EE classes dealing with noise and random variables pretend you have a background in statistics. It's got to be one of the hardest mountains to climb in the first year of graduate school. Sheldon Ross deserves a Nobel Prize for this book. By the way, this was not our textbook. We were forced to buy Papoulis (which sucks). The book is filled with examples. He has three sets of exercises in the back of each chapter: problems, theoretical exercises, and self-test problems and exercises. He gives selected answers and shows some fully worked out. Every class in America should be using this book. I bought it as a study aid based on the comments of fellow Amazons, and I was not dissappointed. In fact I had to come back and give it my highest recommendation.
Note: If you are going to criticize this book as I see many are falling into, you need to show me another one that is better. That is the entire point here. There isn't one. Search the entire Library of Congress to find a better one and let us all know what it is. Thank you.
One of my favorites for essential probability topics September 6, 2007
Hans Gilde (NYC, NY)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is really great for the essentials of probability. I see that some people found it hard to understand and my feeling is that these are people who are not familiar with the math that is prerequisite to probability. If you're familiar with basic calculus and sets, this book is a good reference or intro to the topic of probability.
Upper division college probability course June 20, 2008
D. Ellis (Granada Hills, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When compared to the other texts being used by other professors teaching the same course, I found this book to be very complete, and easily understandable. It is an appropriate source for learning basic probability theory and calculation. Included are many examples to solidify concepts. For the more advanced student, there are theories and proofs, and for the beginning student there are sufficient basic calculation problems to solidify the concepts.
I personally liked that this text was geared towards basic mathematical theory. Other texts might include more complex probability models the business student could use to plug and play without considering the math behind the models. But if you are interested in the math. This is a great text.
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