Tercentenary of Ars Conjectandi (1713): Jacob Bernoulli and the Founding of Mathematical Probability. (24th March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sylla, Edith Dudley
• Is Part Of: International statistical review. Volume 82:Number 1(2014:Apr.)
• Page Start: 27
• Page End: 45
• Publication Date: 2014-03-24
• Subjects: Statistics -- Periodicals; Statistics -- Bibliography -- Periodicals; Statistics -- Bibliography; Statistics -- Periodicals; Statistique; Statistique -- Périodiques; Statistique -- Bibliographie -- Périodiques; Statistique -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; Statistique -- Étude et enseignement -- Bibliographie -- Périodiques; Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); 519.2
• DOI: 10.1111/insr.12050
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-7734

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="insr12050-abs-0001"> <title>Summary</title> <p>The Tercentenary of the publication of Jacob Bernoulli's <italic>Ars Conjectandi</italic> (<italic>The Art of Conjecturing</italic>) provides an opportunity to look at the origins of mathematical probability from Jacob Bernoulli's point of view. Bernoulli gave a mathematically rigorous proof of what has come to be called the weak law of large numbers, relevant to discovering ratios of unknown factors through sampling. <italic>The Art of Conjecturing</italic> was a bridge between the mathematics of expectation in games of chance as found in Huygens's <italic>On Reckoning in Games of Chance</italic> and mathematical probability as found in Abraham De Moivre's <italic>The Doctrine of Chances</italic>. This paper looks at the conceptual context as well as the mathematics of Bernoulli's book.</p> </abstract>