ABSTRACT
Probability rules people's lives – what gender we are, what the weather will be like, will one win the lottery, who will win the big race and a million and one other situations. This branch of mathematics had its origins at the gambling tables with mathematicians being asked to devise strategies so that gamblers could improve their odds of winning more money.
Surprisingly, probability is often considered to be quite a difficult area of mathematics with even eminent scholars being fooled by simple-looking problems. Perhaps the safest way to begin is by rolling dice experimentally and see what happens, but even here there are pitfalls and paradoxes such as the wonderful puzzle of intransitive dice, whose solution most people just do not accept at first hearing.
Then there is the topic of probability in geometry where a given problem can have several different valid solutions depending on the model chosen. And even the seemingly simple game of coin tossing can lead to trouble unless you think laterally and stay alert.
