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Surigao City
Major 1
History of Mathematics
Louella Fe J. Escandor
BSED- MATH 1c
History of Probability
Part 2
I.
Introduction
The word "probability" is derived from the word
"probity". Today, probability may be loosely defined as the
chance that an event occurs.
Probability theory began with two French mathematicians,
Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) and Blaise Pascal (16231662), in 1654 regarding a question of profitability while
gambling in a popular dice game. An exchange of letters
between Fermat and Pascal contained the first
fundamental principles of probability.
Paul Lvy
is one of the greatest mathematicians of our century
and can be considered, to be the forefather of the modern
theory of stochastic processes. Lvy was born into a
family counting several mathematicians.
This was the beginning of his lifelong interest in
probability theory, which lead to the discovery of a wealth
of results, many of which have become today standard
material for undergraduate and graduate courses in
probability theory. He made major contributions to the
study of Gaussian variables and processes, the law of
large numbers, the central limit theorem, stable laws,
Aleksandr
1959)
John Venn
was born in Hull, England, in the 1870s, and for
many years he taught the elementary logic course. Partly
in this connection, Venn wrote influential textbooks. The
first one, entitled The Logic of Chance and dealing with
probability theory, appeared in three editions between
1866 and 1888. He rehearsed many features and practical
applications of the theory, such as insurance, gambling
and the appraisal of testimony, although he deliberately
eschewed most mathematical details.
he adopted a
frequentist interpretation of probability, regarding as
visciously circular the assumption that we know which
causes pertain to the effect under study; only long runs
could make them manifest in the first place. Thus he
rejected the view that statistical regularities could be
explained by causal mechanisms. Venn saw probability
theory as a branch or offshoot of logic; for example in
`modality' where propositions such as `it is probable that
all is ' is used in reasoning. He expanded his lecture
course on logic in his book Symbolic Logic (1888, 1894)
(the origin of that phrase, incidentally).
He largely
followed Boole's ideas on the algebra of logic, with
modifications to the interpretation of some notations. His
adherance to Boole made him rather pass in the
development of algebraic logic (for example, he did not
appreciate the innovation of a logic of relations by De
Morgan) but his book remains a rich and valuable source
of information. One of its virtues are the many historical
references, for which he drew on his own extensive library
(now kept in the Cambridge University Library).
Pierre de Fermat
is known as one of the co-founders of present day
probability theory. He is most commonly known as a
mathematician and a French number theorist. On August
20, 1601, he was born in Beaumont-de-Lomagne to his
father Dominique, a consul of Beaumont-de-Lomagne and
a leather merchant, and to his mother, Claire de Long. He
had one brother and two sisters.
Fermat mathematician made significant contributions to
number theory, probability theory, analytic geometry and
the early development of infinitesimal calculus. He
ventured into the areas of mathematics which included
pre-evolved calculus and trigonometry. Fermats primary
contribution to mathematics was in the field of number
theory.
References:
http://www.proba.jussieu.fr/pageperso/ramacont/le
vy.html
http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/Figu
res.htm#top
http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/Figu
res.htm#top
www.Statprob.com