[OT] "normal" (as in "Guassian")
On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 8:25 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
On 3/3/2008 9:10 AM, Rogers, James A [PGRD Groton] wrote:
> As someone of partly French heritage, I would also ask how this > distribution came to be called "Gaussian". It seems very unfair to de > Moivre, who discovered the distribution at least half a century earlier. > :-)
Just an example of Stigler's Law.
Taking this to a whole new level of "off topic", I wonder if Stigler's Law is self-referential? That is, should Stigler's Law more correctly be attributed to someone else?
> On Mar 2, 2008, at 7:33 AM, (Ted Harding) wrote: >
>> Hi Folks, >> Apologies to anyone who'd prefer not to see this query >> on this list; but I'm asking because it is probably the >> forum where I'm most likely to get a good answer! >> >> I'm interested in the provenance of the name "normal >> distribution" (for what I'd really prefer to call the >> "Gaussian" distribution). >> >> According to Wikipedia, "The name "normal distribution" >> was coined independently by Charles S. Peirce, Francis >> Galton and Wilhelm Lexis around 1875." >> >> So be it, if that was the case -- but I would like to >> know why they chose the name "normal": what did they >> intend to convey? >> >> As background: I'm reflecting a bit on the usage in >> statistics of "everyday language" as techincal terms, >> as in "significantly different". This, for instance, >> is likely to be misunderstood by the general publidc >> when they encounter statements in the media. >> >> Likewise, "normally distributed" would probably be >> interpreted as "distributed in the way one would >> normally expect" or, perhaps, "there was nothing >> unusual about the distribution." >> >> Comments welcome! >> With thanks, >> Ted. >>
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