The Doctrine of Chances

The Doctrine of Chances
Front page of the 1st edition of the “Doctrine of Chances”.

The Doctrine of Chances was the first textbook on probability theory, written by 18th-century French mathematician Abraham de Moivre and first published in 1718.[1] De Moivre wrote in English because he resided in England at the time, having fled France to escape the persecution of Huguenots. The book's title came to be synonymous with probability theory, and accordingly the phrase was used in Thomas Bayes' famous posthumous paper An Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances, wherein a version of Bayes' theorem was first introduced.

Contents

Editions

The full title of the first edition was The doctrine of chances: or, a method for calculating the probabilities of events in play; it was published in 1718, by W. Pearson, and ran for 175 pages. Published in 1738 by Woodfall and running for 258 pages, the second edition of de Moivre's book introduced the concept of normal distributions as approximations to binomial distributions. In effect de Moivre proved a special case of the central limit theorem. Sometimes his result is called the theorem of de Moivre–Laplace. A third edition was published posthumously in 1756 by A. Millar, and ran for 348 pages; additional material in this edition included an application of probability theory to actuarial science in the calculation of annuities.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Schneider, Ivor (2005), "Abraham De Moivre, The Doctrine of Chances (1718, 1738, 1756)", in Grattan-Guinness, I., Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics 1640–1940, Amsterdam: Elsevier, p. 105–120, ISBN 0444508716 .

Additional reading

  • Hald, Anders (1990), "De Moivre and the Doctrine of Chances, 1718, 1738, and 1756", History of Probability and Statistics and Their Applications before 1750, Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics, Wiley Interscience, pp. 397 .

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Doctrine of Chances — (La Doctrina de las Probabilidades, literalmente en español) es un libro sobre la teoría de la probabilidad del siglo XVIII escrito por el matemático francés Abraham de Moivre, publicado en 1718. De Moivre escribió esta obra en inglés debido a… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Doctrine of chances — For the 18th century book on probability theory, see The Doctrine of Chances. Evidence …   Wikipedia

  • Doctrine of chances — Chance Chance (ch[.a]ns), n. [F. chance, OF. cheance, fr. LL. cadentia a allusion to the falling of the dice), fr. L. cadere to fall; akin to Skr. [,c]ad to fall, L. cedere to yield, E. cede. Cf. {Cadence}.] 1. A supposed material or psychical… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • doctrine — doc trine (d[o^]k tr[i^]n), n. [F. doctrine, L. doctrina, fr. doctor. See {Doctor}.] 1. Teaching; instruction. [1913 Webster] He taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken. Mark iv. 2. [1913 Webster] 2. That… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • The Monroe doctrine — doctrine doc trine (d[o^]k tr[i^]n), n. [F. doctrine, L. doctrina, fr. doctor. See {Doctor}.] 1. Teaching; instruction. [1913 Webster] He taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken. Mark iv. 2. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality — The Ingersoll Lectures is the name given to an annual series of lectures presented at the University of Harvard on the subject of immortality.Endowment The Ingersoll Lectureship was founded as a result of a bequest by Miss Caroline Haskell… …   Wikipedia

  • The last chance — Chance Chance (ch[.a]ns), n. [F. chance, OF. cheance, fr. LL. cadentia a allusion to the falling of the dice), fr. L. cadere to fall; akin to Skr. [,c]ad to fall, L. cedere to yield, E. cede. Cf. {Cadence}.] 1. A supposed material or psychical… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • The main chance — Chance Chance (ch[.a]ns), n. [F. chance, OF. cheance, fr. LL. cadentia a allusion to the falling of the dice), fr. L. cadere to fall; akin to Skr. [,c]ad to fall, L. cedere to yield, E. cede. Cf. {Cadence}.] 1. A supposed material or psychical… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • The Economist editorial stance — The Economist was first published in September 1843 by James Wilson to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress. This phrase is quoted on its contents… …   Wikipedia

  • Origins of the Six-Day War — The Origins of the Six Day War, which was fought between June 5 and June 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt [known then as the United Arab Republic (UAR)], Jordan, and Syria, lay in both longer term and immediate issues. The… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”