Calcolo delle Probabilità

Abstract

AMONG the sins of omission for which mathematicians and teachers of mathematics might be charged, there is probably none which has so vitally affected our national welfare as the neglect of the study of probabilities. Into every event of ordinary life considerations of probability enter in a greater or less degree, and for this reason every boy or girl who has learnt to use vulgar fractions ought to be taught to apply them to simple games of chance, and in this way to illustrate the rules for fractional addition, multiplication, and so forth. In default of this knowledge, millions of pounds are spent on postal orders in response to attractive offers of hundredpound prizes the expectation value of which is not one-tenth of the price paid. Yet it was only recently that the Central Welsh Board excluded probabilities from an examination syllabus in algebra which was simply loaded up with questions on collections of letters and symbols that could convey no meaning to the victims of the examination system.

Calcolo delle Probabilità.

By Prof. Guido Castelnuovo. Pp. xxiii + 373. (Milano-Roma-Napoli: Società Editrice Dante Alighieri di Albrighi, Segati e C., 1919.) Price 20 lire.