The Fate of Schrodinger's Cat: Using Math and Computers to Explore the Counterintuitive: 17 (Problem Solving in Mathematics and Beyond) - Hardcover

James D Stein

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9811218633 ISBN 13: 9789811218637

Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company, 2020

Synopsis

Can we correctly predict the flip of a fair coin more than half the time — or the decay of a single radioactive atom? Our intuition, based on a lifetime of experience, tells us that we cannot, as these are classic examples of what are known to be 50–50 guesses. But mathematics is filled with counterintuitive results — and this book discusses some surprising and entertaining examples. It is possible to devise experiments in which a flipped coin lands heads completely at random half the time, but we can also correctly predict when it will land heads more than half the time. The Fate of Schrodinger's Cat shows how high-school algebra and basic probability theory, with the invaluable assistance of computer simulations, can be used to investigate both the intuitive and the counterintuitive. This book explores fascinating and controversial questions involving prediction, decision-making, and statistical analysis in a number of diverse areas, ranging from whether there is such a thing as a ""hot hand"" in shooting a basketball, to how we can successfully predict, more than half the time, the decay of the radioactive atom that determines the fate of Schrodinger's Cat.

About this title

About the Author

James D Stein graduated with a B A in Mathematics in 1962 from Yale and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967, having put himself through graduate school by working as a computer programmer. He taught for seven years at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and for 35 at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). After retiring from CSULB, he is currently teaching one course a semester (usually Multivariable Calculus or Differential Equations) at El Camino Community College. He is the author of approximately 40 research papers, most of which are in Banach spaces or fixed-point theory, and 10 books on mathematics and science written for the general public. Two of these books were selections of the Scientific American Book Club. His current areas of interest are probability theory and its application to problems of prediction. Some of the material in The Fate of Schrodinger's Cat deals with the problem of predicting the decay of a radioactive atom, and has appeared within the past two years in physics journals.

Edition details

• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 9811218633
• ISBN 13: 9789811218637
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240