Customer Reviews (14)

the most thought provoking probability book ever written
This is the book we called Feller Volume II in graduate school. We used it to sharpen our intuition about probability. Feller was a master at explaining difficult things in simple ways. This includes the waiting time paradox and Benford's laws. For structure and rigor we looked elsewhere, Chung and/or Neveu. But Feller's books brought a joy and love for the subject. No statistician or probabilist should be without a copy on his shelf!
In spite of the fact that Feller produced one of the most general versions of the central limit theorem, there are no asymptotic theorems or proofs in this book.

the benchmark
If you could only ever buy one book on probability, this would be the one!

Feller's elegant and lateral approach to the essential elements of probability theory and their application to many diverse and apparently unrelated contexts is head-noddingly inspiring.

Working your way through all the exercises in the book would be an excellent retirment diversion sure to stave off the onset of dementia.

Felled by Feller?
I came across Vol 1 as a maths student in the 1970s.Indeed, the book was suggested to me by a quantum physicist recommended for the Nobel Prize in 1965 (John Ward, now deceased)- Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga shared the prize.

This is a difficult book and was not widely used even in the 70s as a textbook.I can recall the word "idiosyncratic" being used by someone to describe the book.The problem is that the book seeks to address deep issues and that requires hard work.It is not the sort of book a struggling student will find helpful.As one matures as a mathematician one can appreciate the incredible depth of the material.As a practical example - about 30 years after I first touched this book a Head of Quant approached me in relation to a paper by Marsaglia on distributions of ratios of normal variates. The verification of Marsgalia's derivation (which is non-trivial) is to be found as a series of 3 problems in Vol 1.

With the development of stochastic calculus in the finance world Feller can look a bit outdated but if you can understand the core material you are doing well.Stochastic calculus would be a push over.

Vols 1 and 2 present a treasure trove for those who want to delve into the area.I still use Feller's coin tossing example from Vol 1 to demonstrate to those in the finance world that their understanding of the "law of averages" is imperfect.

The funny thing is that Vol 2 (which I could never afford as a student) is so hard to get.I think that was because Vol 2 was regarded as even more obscure than Vol 1.I got a copy from Amazon second hand and it is now united with its twin in my study.

Peter Haggstrom
BONDI BEACH AUSTRALIA

An excellent book, but ..
I read some chapters during second year of college, and I found a bit difficult. Later, after college, I read Feller's books (Vol I,II) and I could appreciate Feller's books as excellent : a delicate mix of rigor and intuition that only the verfy gifted can write.

A Great Classical Book
I used volume I in my class in probability at CALTECH in 1980/81. While never sacrificing rigor, Prof. Feller had the rare gift of explaining difficult things is such away, that they would become not only mathematically clear, but also intuitively obvious.

I consider this book one of the best math books available! ... Read more

Book Description
Technician level Materials Science Text covering everything from metalsto glass, ceramics, woods, plastics and composites. Discusses testing,measurement, designs and intelligent materials decisions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is a good introductory textbook for materials science.
Having taught from this book, I feel that it does an excellent jobpreparing students for the math involved in solving introductory problems. There is entirely too much chemistry in the section on polymers for anintroductory text.Metals are well covered and processing is thoroughlyintroduced.More should be said about composite materials such asfiberglass and SMC (sheet molding compound) since usage is increasing. Itwould also benefit from more discussion of applications for the variousmaterials covered to increase relevancy for the students.Otherwise anexcellent resource. ... Read more