[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jay Warner) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... > albinali wrote: > > > Hi all, > > I've got a question about distributions, it might require a philosophical > > answer, what makes particular distributions of interest (e.g. the normal, > > chi-square, etc.) How did statisticians discover these distributions and why > > did they think that they are of importance? > > I believe the Normal was 'discovered' by plotting a lot of astronomical data > measurements. Presumably all were developed theoretically at some point. > > Historians? Real information?
My understanding is that the astronomical use was preceded by de Moivre's use of it as an approximation to the binomial. Glen . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
