Stop calling Bernoulli’s law of large numbers his "Golden Theorem" (Please?)

Authors

  • Marcio Alves Diniz marciodiniz@ufscar.br
    Universidade Federal de São Carlos

DOI:

10.47976/RBHM2024v24n48151-155

Keywords:

law of large numbers, Bernoulli's golden theorem

Abstract

 Jakob Bernoulli (1655 - 1705) proved the first form of the law of large numbers before 1690 and realized the range of applications of probability calculus would be largely widened by the result. It is pretty common to find examples in the statistical literature referring to it as his “Golden Theorem”. But when did Jakob name his discovery? In fact, he never did, at least this one. A mistake in the translation of Bernoulli's major work, Ars Conjectandi (1713), and the fact that Bernoulli named another result as “Golden theorem” led us to propagate this mistake ... for almost 100 years.

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Author Biography

Marcio Alves Diniz, Universidade Federal de São Carlos

.

References

Bernoulli, J. (1694). Curvatura laminae elasticae. ejus identitas cum curvatura lintei a pondere inclusi fluidi expansi. radii circulorum osculantium in terminis simplicissimis exhibiti; una cum novis quibusdam theorematis huc pertinentibus, &c. Acta Eruditorum, pages 262–276.

Bernoulli, J. (1713). Ars Conjectandi. Thurneysen brothers, Basel.

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van der Waerden, B. L. e. (1975). Die Werke von Jakob Bernoulli: Band 3. Birkhäuser, Basel.

Published

2024-09-13

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How to Cite

DINIZ, Marcio Alves. Stop calling Bernoulli’s law of large numbers his "Golden Theorem" (Please?). Brazilian Journal on the History of Mathematics, São Paulo, vol. 24, no. 48, p. 151–155, 2024. DOI: 10.47976/RBHM2024v24n48151-155. Disponível em: https://rbhm.org.br/index.php/RBHM/article/view/454. Acesso em: 22 dec. 2024.

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