The first edition of this book was released in 2013 although I do not see a record of a review in a previous edition of Technometrics. Like the first edition, the aim and scope remain unchanged and continues to provide concepts and basic tools and techniques for the subject of probability, which is the title of the book. The current edition continues to provide useful information and methods to the undergraduate students and readers at large, as was the case in the first edition. It includes bibliographical references in the Preface of the book and comprises a subject index at the end of the book. As I understand from the Preface, this edition contains moment-ratio diagrams at the end of the Chapter 5. It also includes a univariate distribution relationship chart at the end of Chapter 8. Other than stated above, I am not sure what new material was added to this edition—perhaps I am missing something, but the back cover does not provide this information explicitly.
The book is divided in eight chapters with the following, respective titles:
Introduction
Probability
Random Variables
Discrete Distributions
Continuous Distributions
Joint Distributions
Transformations
Limit Theorems
The book offers more than 100 figures and 800 exercises, making it serve as a textbook. The format is standard and provides a clear and smooth grasp of the material. The chapters are nicely structured, well presented and motivated. The main strength of the book is that it offers a good number of examples and graphs to strengthen the definitions and concepts presented throughout the book. Further, it provides enough exercise questions making it easier for adoption as an undergraduate textbook. I personally like the rigorous but understandable and easy to follow the mathematical treatments. The book contributes stimulating and substantial knowledge in the arena of probability and mathematical statistics and making this book a good candidate as a textbook. Finally, the book covers the topics for Society of Actuaries Exam P.
Brock University