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Counterexamples in Probability

Jordan M. Stoyanov
Publisher: 
Dover Publications
Publication Date: 
2014
Number of Pages: 
368
Format: 
Paperback
Edition: 
3
Price: 
19.95
ISBN: 
978048649987
Category: 
Monograph
[Reviewed by
Robert W. Hayden
, on
10/27/2014
]

The title is largely self-explanatory. A review might comment on the level and type of counterexamples. They are not elementary, nor are they about the paradoxes of probability — especially of the infinite. A common type here consists of examples that show certain conditions in the usual statement of a theorem cannot be relaxed. Another indication of level is that the first counterexamples concern sigma fields.

The counterexamples are mostly collected from the literature. Thirty-nine pages of references and a four-page index help to track things down. This is clearly a reference book for graduate students and probabilists, and not something one would read from cover to cover. Recommended to the small audience whose needs match the title and level. Dover is to be congratulated for keeping good books with such a very small audience available.


After a few years in industry, Robert W. Hayden (bob@statland.org) taught mathematics at colleges and universities for 32 years and statistics for 20 years. In 2005 he retired from full-time classroom work. He now teaches statistics online at statistics.com and does summer workshops for high school teachers of Advanced Placement Statistics. He contributed the chapter on evaluating introductory statistics textbooks to the MAA's Teaching Statistics.

The table of contents is not available.