Review of The science of chance

Abstract

Reviews the book, "The science of chance," by H. C. Levinson (1950). This book, written by a mathematician, carries the subtitle "From Probability to Statistics," and is divided into two parts: Chance and Statistics. The first part (200 pages) is a very readable nontechnical presentation of the concepts of probability and their bearing on such games of chance as poker, roulette, craps, and bridge. The reviewer unreservedly recommends this part to two classes of readers: those who need a knowledge of probability in order to appreciate its applications in scientific research and those who have a vocational or avocational interest in games of chance. Although the author seems to think he has made "clear the nature of the modern science of statistics" (p, 270), the second part fails by far to reach this goal. An exposition of statistics which utilizes the antiquated "probable error," which discusses briefly the normal, Bernoullian, Poisson, and Lexis distributions, which fails to mention t, chi square, and F, and which never comes to grips with even elemental significance tests and confidence limits, can hardly be characterized as "modern." Indeed, it can be said that this book contains nothing on statistical techniques that couldn't have been said 30 years ago. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)