What Are the Odds?: The Chances of Extraordinary Events in Everyday Life [Paperback]

Jefferson Hane Weaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2002

How often have you wondered about the probability of winning the lottery? Maybe you'd like to know the odds of marrying a millionaire, or of just finding matching socks when fumbling around in a dark dresser drawer. We're barraged with statistics every day about health risks, life expectancy, and the chances of success, but to most of us all these numbers and percentages mean very little. If you're curious about how statistics can significantly impact your life but don't want to wrestle with the equations in a dry-as-dust textbook, this light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, whirlwind tour of entertaining statistics has everything you need. Not only will you be amused by J H Weaver's many entertaining examples, but you'll actually learn something about how statistics work. Even the most math phobic individual won't be able to resist delving into the many provocative topics covered. Weaver admirably succeeds in proving that statistics can be fun.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What could be better than a book on probability that doesn't bother with lots of pesky equations? There are only a few sentences here on those dreaded "standard deviations" and even then, only to dismiss them. Weaver purports to examine the probability of (mostly) improbable phenomena, such as the likelihood of getting hit on the head by a meteor, of having simultaneous multiple sex partners, of writing a bestseller and getting murdered on the job. Since probability theory has little to offer in the evaluation of such phenomena, Weaver is freed from having to calculate much of anything, leaving plenty of space for his opinions on such topics as why we have violent crime when the government gives financial assistance to poor people, or whether nursing home injury rates are high because old men are trying to have sex with old ladies who might not be their wives. Now and then, Weaver does throw in some numbers (although he doesn't discuss his sources), e.g., that Americans have sex an average of 59.1 times a year so what's that one tenth, Weaver wonders rather predictably, kissing, hugging, fondling? But then again, as Weaver himself says, "Statistics are tools and they are admittedly of limited effectiveness, particularly when used by persons of limited effectiveness."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

First, a warning: anyone expecting a lighthearted, stylish book about statistics may be disappointed here. Weaver is a clunky and convoluted writer (many passages feel like they've jumped from the pages of a textbook); his paragraphs are way too long (some last more than a page); and his awkwardly phrased attempts at humor often fall flat. All that having been said, this book contains a great deal of useful information. Like any good book about statistics, it teaches us how to set up criteria for assessing probability (suchandsuch seems quite unlikely, but if we take this into account, and then this, we realize suchandsuch isn't nearly so outofleftfield at all). What, for example, are the chances of being audited by the IRS, or finding true love, or getting injured in the workplace? Readers who can wade through the author's cumbersome narrative will find plenty of fascinating data. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573929336
• ISBN-13: 978-1573929332
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,189,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute little book and nice read, May 18, 2007

By 

Omar F. Zaidan - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Are the Odds?: The Chances of Extraordinary Events in Everyday Life (Paperback)

This is a good book about a pretty interesting (and important) topic: probability and chance. I like the examples Weaver used and his presentation was good too.

Although he reports a lot of numbers and statistical figures (that's the point of the book), there isn't much math -- almost none, in fact. This might not be the best way to present this material if you want to understand the underlying math (one can argue it's being oversimplified) but here's the thing: most people are interested in the final numbers and the bottom line, and wouldn't mind some commentary to go along with it. This is exactly what Weaver does in this book: he presents a number of topics that most people can relate to, tells you about some interesting numbers, and provides a bit of explanation, some commentary, and a few jokes here and there.

In short you will like this book if you don't buy it expecting to get a rigorous mathematical explanation of, well, anything. Weaver never claims his book contains any math that is the least bit complicated, and so I think it's fair to say the content matches the description, and for that I give this book a good rating.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Are The Odds: The Chances of Extraordinary Events, February 8, 2002

By 

Adam P. Von Romer "APVR" (Fort Lauderdale, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Are the Odds?: The Chances of Extraordinary Events in Everyday Life (Paperback)

This is one of the funniest and most informative books I've ever read about one of the most mundane and potentially boring topics ever. Jefferson Hane Weaver takes a "boring as watching paint dry" subject and makes it entertaining, informative and (believe it or not) a page-turner. Basically, I learned a littel bit about "Odds" and laughed my ass off in the process.

Well Done Mr. Weaver.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needed a Numerate Editor, September 16, 2006

By 

Dennis During (Mount Vernon, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Are the Odds?: The Chances of Extraordinary Events in Everyday Life (Paperback)

I don't like to have to inspect table and graphs of quantitative information for correctness and plausibility. Because I found that this book contained several simple errors of calculation, I found it hard to trust ANY of the "facts" reported.

Furtheremore, the author acknowledged no editor. Perhaps Prometheus Books did not provide one. Be skeptical of the quality of books published by Prometheus Books.

Clifford Pickor (author), Leon Lederman (Nobelist), and Barry Parker (author) provided blurbs for this inferior book. Unfortunately, this book does nothing to counter the belief that the law is a refuge for the clever innumerate. (J. J. Waeaver, the author, is an attorney.