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Message-ID: <F5764597-B96F-435B-A6D0-C5B978394583@noc.soton.ac.uk>
Date: 2008-03-04T09:02:50Z
From: robin hankin
Subject: [OT] "normal" (as in "Guassian")
In-Reply-To: <E15DC967-4236-4C85-8697-B4C344706F0F@uva.nl>

On 4 Mar 2008, at 08:20, Ingmar Visser wrote:

> Wikipedia says:
>
> Stigler attributes the discovery of Stigler's Law to Robert K. Merton
> (which makes the law self-referencing).
>


Stigler's law certainly applies in mathematics, where
standard procedure is to name a concept in honour of
the first person after Euler to have (re)discovered it.


rksh


> (Working as a historian of science he should have proceeded to name
> the law Merton's law only to find out
> later that actually someone had discovered it even earlier.)
>
> Ingmar
>
> [edit]
> On 3 Mar 2008, at 19:17, Douglas Bates wrote:
>
>>>>
>>>>

--
Robin Hankin
Uncertainty Analyst and Neutral Theorist,
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
  tel  023-8059-7743