Ebook: Dice World: Science and Life in a Random Universe

For centuries scientists believed that the universe was a vast machine? with enough detail, you could predict exactly what would happen. Admittedly real life wasn't like that. But only, they argued, because we didn't have enough data to be certain. Then the cracks began to appear. It proved impossible to predict exactly how three planets orbiting each other would move. Meteorologists discovered that the weather was truly chaotic? so dependent on small variations that it could never be predicted for more than a few days out. And the final nail in the coffin was quantum theory, showing th.;Cover; Title page; Copyright information; Contents; Acknowledgements; 0: Alea jacta est; 1: Improbable world; Finding patterns; The patterns of science; The randomness confusion; Weighing up risk; From classical to chaos; 2: More random than random; The success factor; Random success; Superstition conjures causation; A natural cycle; 3: A measure for luck; The inhuman economist; Gambling with chance; 4: It's all in the stats; What's it worth?; The law of large numbers; Distributing the outcomes; 5: The clockwork universe; The universe according to Newton; No need for that hypothesis.