Prob/Stats Material for studying probability and statistics

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The book "Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists" by Sheldon M. Ross is criticized for its brief explanations and numerous errors in examples, making it difficult for self-study. The user is seeking a more comprehensive substitute that covers the probability topics outlined in their course curriculum, specifically Chapters 3, 4, and 5. They mention finding "Introduction to Probability, 2nd Edition" by Dimitri P. Bertsekas and John N. Tsitsiklis, which has received positive reviews and appears to cover most required topics in greater detail. The user emphasizes the need for a textbook that provides sufficient explanations rather than just visual aids. Overall, a recommendation for a more effective learning resource is sought.
stucano
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Hi guys,

I'm having trouble with this book - "Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists" by Sheldon M. Ross. The explanations are very short and often lack necessary details, the examples are very hard and apparently some full of errors. I just can't study from it and it's becoming incredibly frustrating.

I'm mostly doing self-study with video lectures when needed but I need a good book for this. My course's curriculum for the probability part is Chapters 3, 4 and 5. Here are the details:

Chapter 3 - Elements of probability
* Conditional probability
* Bayes' Formula
* Independent events

Chapter 4 - Random variables and Expectation
* Random variables, types
* Jointly distributed random vars
* Expectations
* Properties of expected value
* Variance, covariance and variance of sums of rand vars
* Moment generating func
* Chebyshev's inequality and the weak law of large numbers

Chapter 5 - Special random variables
* Bernoulli random variables
* Poisson random variable
* Hypergeometric random variable
* Uniform random variable
* Normal random variable
* Exponential random variable
* Gamma distribution
* Distributions arising from the normal
- Chi-Square, t-Distribution, F-distribution
* Logistics distribution

We cover probability first then statistics. Can anyone please recommend a good substitute that has all the above material? Anything would be useful, course notes, book(s), other materials even if they are just parts of the above chapters.
 
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micromass said:
Here's a very good site with very nice applets: http://www.uah.edu/science/departments/math/ Spending some time studying the applets could mean a world of difference for your understanding.

There are no applets as far as that site goes. It's not so much about visualizing, it's more about the textbook I quoted having very brief explanations and it's not enough. From the reviews online it seems that other students agree.

I found this book: Introduction to Probability, 2nd Edition by Dimitri P. Bertsekas and John N. Tsitsiklis, which seems to be good with good reviews. Book contents are here http://www.athenasc.com/probcontents.html.

It seems to be missing some concepts but all in all it covers most of the topics I listed, but it does so in ~500 pages. Should be interesting.
 
This thread only works as a summary from the original source: List of STEM Masterworks in Physics, Mechanics, Electrodynamics... The original thread got very long and somewhat hard to read so I have compiled the recommendations from that thread in an online (Google Drive) spreadsheet. SUMMARY Permits are granted so you can make comments on the spreadsheet but I'll initially be the only one capable of edition. This is to avoid the possibility of someone deleting everything either by mistake...
By looking around, it seems like Dr. Hassani's books are great for studying "mathematical methods for the physicist/engineer." One is for the beginner physicist [Mathematical Methods: For Students of Physics and Related Fields] and the other is [Mathematical Physics: A Modern Introduction to Its Foundations] for the advanced undergraduate / grad student. I'm a sophomore undergrad and I have taken up the standard calculus sequence (~3sems) and ODEs. I want to self study ahead in mathematics...

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