Probability
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the strange mathematics of probability where heads or tails is a simple question with a far from simple answer. Gambling may be as old as the hills but probability as a mathematical discipline is a relative youngster. Probability is the field of maths relating to random events and, although commonplace now, the idea that you can pluck a piece of maths from the tumbling of dice, the shuffling of cards or the odds in the local lottery is a relatively recent and powerful one. It may start with the toss of a coin but probability reaches into every area of the modern world, from the analysis of society to the decay of an atom.
Guests
- Marcus du Sautoy
15 episodes
Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford - Colva Roney-Dougal
11 episodes
Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews - Ian Stewart
15 episodes
Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick
Related episodes
-
Random and Pseudorandom
13 Jan, 2011 510 Mathematics -
Mathematics’ Unintended Consequences
11 Feb, 2010 510 Mathematics -
Game Theory
10 May, 2012 510 Mathematics -
Mathematics
6 May, 1999 510 Mathematics -
Mathematics and Platonism
11 Jan, 2001 510 Mathematics -
Maths and Storytelling
30 Sep, 1999 510 Mathematics -
Zero
13 May, 2004 510 Mathematics -
Pascal
19 Sep, 2013 510 Mathematics -
Infinity
23 Oct, 2003 510 Mathematics -
Maths in the Early Islamic World
16 Feb, 2017 510 Mathematics -
Calculus
24 Sep, 2009 510 Mathematics -
Prime Numbers
12 Jan, 2006 510 Mathematics -
Chaos Theory
16 May, 2002 500 Science -
Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems
9 Oct, 2008 510 Mathematics -
e
25 Sep, 2014 510 Mathematics -
Imaginary Numbers
23 Sep, 2010 510 Mathematics -
Pierre-Simon Laplace
8 Apr, 2021 510 Mathematics -
Mathematics and Music
25 May, 2006 780 Music -
Free Will
10 Mar, 2011 100 Philosophy -
Logic
21 Oct, 2010 160 Philosophical logic
Programme ID: b00bqf61
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bqf61
Auto-category: 510 (Mathematics)