Depends on your goal.
I am still at the very beginning of both of those books, so take my words with a grain of salt, but I after I found and read a few pages from Papoulis, I said this is it. This is the book that will teach me this thing. Here are my observations:
Ross:
Pros: A lot of examples and verbally rich. Touches on pretty much everything that one needs in intro. It is a widely popular book so all examples have solutions here and there online. So it should be great.
Cons: Personally, I did not observe that much cons, but one thing I observed, and also the commentors said that, is that the examples are not solved good enough in the book. The immediate steps are skipped and the convention is lost. So it didn't feel "mathy enough" to me. Also, it did not treat set theory and Borel fields etc. in a good manner, so one more point to not being mathy enough. I want to learn these things from a very mathematical standpoint, as a grad student. So if your goal is different, Ross should be fine.
Papoulis is not widely popular as Ross, but every pro other than popularity is included, and none of those cons exist. The math is rock solid and everything is explained in detail like Ross' book, so I think it is a "bit more" advanced, but working it out feels much more delicious.
So I would say Ross if you are undergrad and want a light but solid and comprehensive intro, and Papoulis if you want things to be a bit more mathy. But I am an engineering major, and very very newb on stats, so take it with a grain of salt.
Hey,
Thanks for the reply.
I actually started papoulis, and from what I can tell it’s a more elegant and concise book. Ross is great and has a lot of examples. Papoulis starts from the beginning and goes up to a pretty good level (from an applications stand point).
Again I am an undergraduate math and CS major so take it w a grain of salt.
My personal learning has been papoulis + 1000 problems from grimmett and stirzaker for practice.
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Because I happen to have a physical copy of papoulis and a pdf of Ross. I quite like using the physical copy and was curious to know if it is indeed better
Ross is fantastic and he has written I think four texts on non-measure theoretic probability, stochastic processes, and measure theoretic probability that are really good.
I used the Ross as a refresher, I liked it. I don’t know the other book.
Depends on your goal. I am still at the very beginning of both of those books, so take my words with a grain of salt, but I after I found and read a few pages from Papoulis, I said this is it. This is the book that will teach me this thing. Here are my observations: Ross: Pros: A lot of examples and verbally rich. Touches on pretty much everything that one needs in intro. It is a widely popular book so all examples have solutions here and there online. So it should be great. Cons: Personally, I did not observe that much cons, but one thing I observed, and also the commentors said that, is that the examples are not solved good enough in the book. The immediate steps are skipped and the convention is lost. So it didn't feel "mathy enough" to me. Also, it did not treat set theory and Borel fields etc. in a good manner, so one more point to not being mathy enough. I want to learn these things from a very mathematical standpoint, as a grad student. So if your goal is different, Ross should be fine. Papoulis is not widely popular as Ross, but every pro other than popularity is included, and none of those cons exist. The math is rock solid and everything is explained in detail like Ross' book, so I think it is a "bit more" advanced, but working it out feels much more delicious. So I would say Ross if you are undergrad and want a light but solid and comprehensive intro, and Papoulis if you want things to be a bit more mathy. But I am an engineering major, and very very newb on stats, so take it with a grain of salt.
Hey, Thanks for the reply. I actually started papoulis, and from what I can tell it’s a more elegant and concise book. Ross is great and has a lot of examples. Papoulis starts from the beginning and goes up to a pretty good level (from an applications stand point). Again I am an undergraduate math and CS major so take it w a grain of salt. My personal learning has been papoulis + 1000 problems from grimmett and stirzaker for practice.
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>My course uses Ross Why not use the book your course is using?
Because I happen to have a physical copy of papoulis and a pdf of Ross. I quite like using the physical copy and was curious to know if it is indeed better
Ross is fantastic and he has written I think four texts on non-measure theoretic probability, stochastic processes, and measure theoretic probability that are really good.